


Strings of Fate

by clobrandwell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Inter-house relations, Multi, Pseudo-Seer, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, but there will be romance in the far away future, no romance for now, oc-insert, tag are hard man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 48,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24917854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clobrandwell/pseuds/clobrandwell
Summary: It was surprising how much a single person's existence could change so much, but then again, it was not every day someone reborn with foreknowledge decides to play Seer and mess with what is to come. SI!-OC
Comments: 107
Kudos: 592
Collections: A Collection of Beloved Inserts, Not to be misplaced, oc self insertSI





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm cross-posting this work from ffn, I've never tried AO3 before for anything other than reading, but it's worth a shot I think.  
> I'll be posting a chapter a day until the story here catches up to the one already ongoing.  
> Thanks for reading and hope you're having a nice day wherever you are sz

She couldn't remember the first name she had, or much about her past self, but she did remember with great clarity the day that her new life began.

It was all very confusing at first, so many voices around her, to the point that at first, she wasn't sure she even understood what was being said.

Her eyes were not opening no matter how much she tried, and she felt strangely small and fragile. Something warm and soft wrapped around her body, and she could feel herself moving, although no effort was being done on her part for that. The first thing she actually remembers hearing and understanding gave quite a lot of context to the situation.

"Why isn't she crying? Aren't they suppose to cry quite a lot when they're born?" The voice was clearly from a man, and other than the British accent that she detected, the clearest thing was that his tone was nothing short of complete panic.

She didn't register the answer given by whoever the poor frightened man had directed the question to, since her mind entered a state of disbelief after processing the words since she quite clearly was not a newborn baby. Or least she wasn't before.

"Give her to me, please." A new voice sounded, tiredness intertwined with a sense of excitement, and it didn't take long for her to feel gentle arms holding what she now knew to be her body in the form of a newborn. "Oh, she's gorgeous."

It was then that all the effort she'd been putting in opening her eyes gave result, and the sight that greeted her was more then enough to quench any doubts about her current situation, even if it was a bit blurry.

The woman holding her smiled brightly at the sight of her daughter's eyes, and tears gathered in her own.

"Hello, my dear Gardenia."

It was at that moment that she decided to react in the only way she could, a definitely ineffective way to deal with the situation but unfortunately all she had at the moment, and a small part of her also wanted to somehow calm the man that was still panicking about her lack of noise.

She, now apparently Gardenia, after getting as much air into her small lungs as she possibly could, cried with everything she had.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Adjusting to her new life was relatively easy, and to anyone who looked, she was an angel of a child. Always easy to manage, never waking at night and effectively ruining her parents' sleep, only crying when she needed something such as a diaper change or food, and sometimes when her father looked like he was about to cry from the lack of crying she did.

Said man, apparently named Jake, or possibly Jacob, she wasn't completely sure yet, was at rather a loss when it came to how to be a father, so Gardenia decided that whenever he looked too unsure of himself, she would cry. Sure, at first he entered a rather alarming state of panic, but by the fourth month of her existence, the fact she settled down rather quickly after he picked her up gave him a certain level of confidence in his parent skills.

Her mother, a woman that was certainly less spooked by the prospect of parenthood then her husband, was either named Love or Lucy (there was a great possibility the former was simply an endearment, however, it was the only thing she ever heard her being called for a few months) and Gardenia sometimes even forgot her reality of not being mentally a baby when the woman held her and sang nursery rhymes with a voice so soothing and beautiful.

Gardenia wasn't sure of the whys and hows of her current situation, but being a baby incapable of doing much gave her tons of time to think about it. She remembered a bit more about whatever life she had before then she did when she was first born, but not a lot. There was a high chance of her name also having been a flower, she found this to be a bit of wonder, and she was pretty sure as well that she had died. The reason for this was that she vividly remembers doing such, or at least of a situation that couldn't possibly have ended well for her.

There was a possibility she was insane, but the baby situation put a damper on that since she was quite sure babies are, even if insane, not supposed to have the level of maturity or thought process she currently possesses. The other option was that all babies remember past lives and just forget as they grow up, but this scenario unnerved her greatly and after recounting how babies generally act, she came to the conclusion the is indeed the odd one.

All of this rationalization when out the window though, when one day while she was simply sitting in the living room playing with a doll, or rather holding it and moving it around in pretense while her mind wandered, a person came out of their fireplace, and suddenly Gardenia realized that wherever she was, it was not the same world she had come from.

This left her with a surprised expression that she wasn't even sure babies could have, and perhaps her face was making another type of facial expression entirely, but nothing, not even finding herself reincarnated, prepared her for the fact that she had reincarnated somewhere where magic was real.

This time her tears were not simply to reassure her father of his abilities, and it can be said that when she did not cease after a whole five minutes of him holding her, the man was also in the brink of tears.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

She did not make the connection of magic and the fictional world of a book series she had once read until a while later, much to her embarrassment.

After settling down, which did take a bottle of warm milk, Gardenia was privy to a very interesting conversation, one that not only gave her a perspective of the world she was currently in but of who her family was.

"Are you absolutely out of your mind? Did you not think before Flooing here and giving Nia the fright of her life?" After having only seen the woman in a state of calmness and smiles, it was quite a shock to hear the scolding tone in her voice as she berated the man that appeared magically inside their house.

"I'm sorry about that Lu, I had no idea a baby could be that freaked out about this!" He did sound apologetic, but Gardenia was paying more attention to the man's physical appearance. Bright ginger hair that reached his ears before curling slightly, blue eyes that she swore sparkled, and wearing weird clothes. It tickled her memory, the way he looked, but maybe as collateral of all her knowledge being made to squeeze into a baby-sized brain, she could not remember what he reminded her of. "She is adorable you know, I love my nephews but she has got them beat by a long shot in the cuteness department."

That seemed to appease the woman she knew as her mother a bit, but she was still slightly glaring at the redhead.

"Not that I don't appreciate your company Gideon, but would you mind explaining why you came here unannounced in the middle of the afternoon?"

"Oh yes, I would've told you in advance if this hadn't been sprung on me at the last minute, but I'm here as a messenger for my dear sister. She invites you, your lovely wife," he winked at her mother with mischief in his eyes, and even tough Gardenia couldn't see her face, she could swear she rolled her eyes at his antics. "And your adorable daughter for the birthday bash of her eldest."

It was all spoken with quite a bit of flair that given the reactions of her parents, was quite common for this man named Gideon. Her father was somewhat amused, but from the look in his face, it didn't seem as he was inclined to agree to the invitation.

"I'm not sure that would be wise, Gardenia is still so small, Lucy and I have been avoiding leaving the house with her, and after the last big gathering we attended before she was born ended the way it did," his voice sounded heavy as if remembering just what had happened, and her mother's arms tightened just a fraction around her. "I don't want to risk it."

It seemed as if Gideon expected this answer because it didn't take him long at all to try and ease their worries. "Trust me, I'm aware of the dangers out there, especially when we consider Lucy's blood status, but we have taken precautions against anything bad happening. Fabian and I are Aurors, don't you forget, and we made sure to ward the place with everything we know." That seemed to make his audience contemplate the matter, but apparently, Gideon wanted them to really have no excuse for not coming because he went in with the killing blow. "And to be quite honest with you, Molly would be devastated if all her efforts to make sure little Bill has a normal birthday amongst all of this chaos were for nothing. Besides, has your daughter ever seen, much less interacted, with another child?"

And so it seemed that they were convinced, and Gardenia would attend her first-ever birthday party. Well, first in this life.

It was moments after their guest had left, which he did by taking a handful of some sort of powder, getting inside their hearth, and saying with clarity the Burrow, that she joined all the pieces of the puzzle in her mind.

She had been reincarnated into the world of Harry _freaking_ Potter.

It made her father quite distressed when she started crying all over again.


	2. Chapter 2

It was quite a shock to Gardenia when she realized exactly _when_ she had been born. Not only she was born during a war, but apparently, she was born before the timeline of the books she had to guide her current life.

It didn't take long for her to make the connection that besides vague details of who she used to be and how she had died, the one thing she remembered with clarity was the story in which she has been inserted. So the fact she was two years ahead of schedule made a mark.

All of this distressed her quite a bit. Her previous life, for all that she could remember of it, had been quite normal, if a tad boring. But this did not mean she was in any way excited to now be part of a world which was currently immersed in a civil war, and that even though there would be a brief period of peace, things would get a lot worse in the future. And to top it all off, she could not do anything about it.

Even with all her knowledge, which included details that she could swear she did not remember ever reading about, she was currently a baby, and quite incapable of doing anything that would amount to something in this state. When the story officially began in a bit more than a decade, she would be in her teenage years and would be able to act, but that did not quell her want to change things before a child was orphaned, an innocent man went to jail and many other lives that did not make into the official story were ended.

Alas, that was not possible. Even if she was able to change those things, that would affect everything she knew, and result in Voldemort not being defeated, and who knows what would happen then.

So Gardenia was forced to begrudgingly accept the reality of her situation, even if it made her quite sad that she was for all intents and purposes, useless for the time being.

The thought of never acting in her knowledge did rear its head a few times, and Gardenia did consider it, but she couldn't say if it was a sense of justice, attachment to what she knew of the people that used to be just characters, or simply the fact that no matter what, her life would end up entangled with the conflicts that had yet to come, but she couldn't simply ignore the chance she had been given.

Of course, it could also be said that one of the reasons she would want to work to change things at all is because she found out who exactly her family was.

Her full name was Gardenia Mimosa Fawley, much to her displeasure. Her first name was alright, she supposed, not the most common when it came to flower names, but considering the Wizarding World and the type of names that some children ended up with, it could have been a lot worse. But Mimosa? Not her favorite. What was she, a cow? And she honestly thought one plant-related name was more than enough.

It was not her father's family that made her pause and reconsider her future though. It was her mother that put things into perspective because while she was now named Lucy Fawley, her maiden name was Tonks.

_Tonks._

As in Edward Tonk's younger sister, Nymphadora's aunt, and more importantly, in this scenario, her mother.

This made her a little more invested than anticipated.

She had no knowledge of Lucy from what she knew of this world, but ever since she saw herself be born into it, she was not exactly expecting everything to go according to plan, especially if her future plans involved actively changing things.

However, for now, Gardenia would let thought of destiny and whatnot fade into the background, because she had at the moment the great mission of partaking in social interaction with literal babies, and she was trying her best not to find a way to throw both of the small redhead twins out of the window.

Due to her age, and the fact that the party was truly more of an excuse for the adults to socialize among themselves while they had the children too preoccupied with each other to bother them, Gardenia had been settled on the rug of the Burrow's living room beside the two other children that were close enough to her in age that eventually they would be classmates in Hogwarts.

Fred and George Weasley, while incapable of speaking sentences, were already two troublemakers that caused mischief, resulting in a headache that Gardenia swore should be impossible for a baby brain to even have.

They seemed hell-bent on engaging her in whatever their twin connected minds had come up with to entertain themselves, but to Gardenia's exponentially more mature mind, all they were doing could be resumed in pure chaos. Be it crawling their way to whatever definitely not child-friendly object and doing their damn best to have it in their possession, or try and climb their way into the couches even though that would result in a head being slit open if things went sideways, to even the astounding feat of somehow getting hold of a wand and throwing bursts of accidental magic around.

It could be said that she had her hands full. It should have probably been up to an adult, not a ten-month-old who four months ago couldn't even hold her own head up, to rein in the two menaces, but Gardenia had the mind of a young adult in her head, so she took it upon herself to look out for the two so they would not end up causing great harm to anyone, themselves included.

She was aware of Molly Weasley never actually leaving the room in which they were in, and so effectively keeping an eye on them, but Gardenia simply wanted them to behave a little so she could be at peace.

This was how their parents found them a while later, Gardenia, quite successfully she might say, had managed to make them quiet down enough that both of the twins were playing with objects that were indeed meant for their age group and were not moving around like curious puppies in search of trouble.

"Would you look at that, it seems your daughter is a miracle worker Fawley!" She recognized the voice of Arthur Weasley, the man that had fathered the two probably ADHD children she was currently in the middle of.

It used to boggle her mind a bit that out of all the children the Weasley couple had, the twins were much more Marauder-like then the rest, their personalities not being anything like any of their parents. However, after meeting the two younger brothers of Molly Weasley _née_ Prewett, she understood perfectly who they had taken after.

"I think she takes after her father, he was after all the only person that could rein in Gid and Fabe during our school years." Her mother commented, sounding amused.

That made sense in a way. From what she could gather, her father Jacob Fawley was pretty much the best of friends with both Gideon and Fabian Prewett, having attended Hogwarts in the same year, and even though he ended up in Hufflepuff while they had gone to Gryffindor, their friendship had remained strong. That he, a man she knows to be a calm and kind soul, could be the calming agent for the two men that she could only describe as older versions of the Weasley Twins, made a lot of sense.

The fact she knew they weren't going to live past 1981 was something she tried not to dwell on.

"I do hope they become friends, wouldn't it be wonderful for them to attend Hogwarts and have each other for support?" Molly Weasley sounded quite enamored with the idea.

It was not, however, in Gardenia's plans to become best buddies with the twins, because not only could she foresee years of headaches for her in that path, she was sure they would end up getting her involved in their future pranks and schemes. That didn't sound very appealing to her. Not to mention the fact that one of them would not make it out of the war alive, and Gardenia, not sure that she could ever truly change anything enough to prevent such a death, did not want to become very attached.

It was then that Fred, which she could tell by the knitted onesie that had a very big red F on it, started crying with a vengeance, and she realized that he had somehow hurt his finger on one of the toys. She could see a small drop of blood and her immediate reaction was to grab his tiny wrist and stick the injured finger in his mouth. She remembered vaguely that paper cuts used to be quite a common occurrence in for her in her old life, and she knew that her reaction was always to suck on the cut and wait for the pain to fade, so she didn't really think before acting. Having his finger now on his mouth made Fred pause his crying, and he seemed to do exactly what she had intended and sucked on his thumb as if it was a pacifier, his red-rimmed eyes looking at her.

Molly had crouched down in front of them in the few seconds that it took for all of that to happen, and she had a warm smile on her face even though her child had just been screaming bloody murder. She took Fred's finger out of his mouth and quickly muttered a spell, placing a kiss on her son's forehead before he started sniffling like he wanted to cry again. She then reached out to Gardenia, caressing her soft cheek. "Thank you, dear."

She couldn't exactly say ' _You're welcome_ ', so Gardenia settled for what she hoped was a cute smile, and from Molly's face, it looked like she succeeded. It probably wasn't very baby-like to do what she has just done, the common reaction for when another infant started bawling their eyes out usually was to copy them and cry as well, but maybe it was passable as her just being an intuitive kid or something.

"Look at that, she's already taking care of them! They'll be best friends by the time they get to Hogwarts," Arthur looked very happy about that prediction, and from the looks on the other adults' faces, so did they.

Gardenia hated letting people down, but unfortunately, their hopes of a future friendship would be for naught if she could help it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was an enjoyable read, please do leave a review if you can, it'd be wonderful to hear someone's opinion on it.
> 
> The first few chapters are on the shorter side, but soon they'll be around the 6k mark 
> 
> Thank you for all the kudos and reviews, they really made my day!


	3. Chapter 3

Gardenia's efforts not to befriend Fred and George Weasley ended up not really working out, because, in the one year and a half that had gone by since her first meeting the two, she had found herself in their presence a lot.

Their parents had started scheduling play dates for them not long after Bill's birthday, and it seemed that in their minds they were already best friends.

The thing was, Gardenia didn't have the heart not to go along with it. She knew she could act moody and sullen so her parents would get the hint and stop putting her in the same room as the Weasley twins, but the first time she had done that, the plan very firm in her mind, George looked like he was about to burst into tears, especially when she refused to take the plushy he offered from his hands. It seemed she had a heart made of butter, and Gardenia couldn't make children cry even if it would be in her benefit to do so.

And so it began, her friendship with Fred and George. She mostly just looked out for the two troublemakers to make sure they wouldn't end up maiming themselves or others, but she had to admit, it was entertaining to be in their presence.

From the time she had been born as Gardenia, she found herself being bored quite a lot, after all, there was not much to do when you were a baby. But when she was with the twins, she constantly found herself amused by their antics, even if it exasperated her greatly when one of them would try to do something so stupidly dangerous it almost gave her a heart attack.

Time passed relatively fast, and before she knew it, it was 1981.

She would be three years old soon, the 17th of January to be more specific, but this year meant everything would change.

She was not oblivious to how the adults around her acted, she knew there was a war going on, even if she technically was not supposed to. She had caught snippets of conversation before being noticed, and she could still read, which meant sneaking peaks at newspapers that laid around since neither of her parents found it necessary to hide them very well, considering that to them she was illiterate.

Neither of her parents was a part of the Order of the Phoenix, but her father worked in the Ministry, and he apparently gave some information on the side to Order if she was guessing correctly. Her mother had left her job in the Diagon Alley in favor of remaining at home for the time being since her blood status put a target on her back, and she did not have the advantage of working in one of the better-protected areas of the wizarding world as her husband did, infested with spies or not, the Ministry wouldn't be attacked any time soon. She was glad that they weren't directly involved, she felt more at ease knowing that the chance of them being killed was less significant that way.

However, other people that she, unfortunately, had started to care about, were directly involved, and even worse, were fated to die before the end of the year.

Gideon and Fabian Prewett became common faces for her, they were around a lot due to her father, but they also sometimes babysat her and their nephews, and sometimes even just her when her parents occasionally went out for a date (always in a muggle place, she noticed).

Even tough Gardenia tried not to, she couldn't help but like them. They were always so happy, smiling, and making jokes, she never saw her father laugh as much as he did when in their presence. And they were so kind to her, they treated her as if she was their niece, and she could never stop the genuine smiles and laughs from surfacing, even when trying her best to not get attached.

It did not help matters at all when she found out Gideon was her godfather, and the connection her mind made with Sirius Black and Harry Potter was impossible to stop.

It broke her heart that they would die so soon.

Gardenia truly wanted to do something about it, but what? She didn't really know much about how they had died, only that they had taken down about half a dozen Death Eaters before being killed by Antonin Dolohov.

And even if she could try and change things, who was to say she could stop them from dying?

She was having trouble sleeping lately, and it did not go unnoticed.

Gardenia had bonded very much with both Jacob and Lucy Fawley, she could only barely remember her first parents, and that wasn't enough to keep her from caring for these two people that took care of her and loved her. Sometimes she thought maybe her mind had reversed mentally a bit, or perhaps it was just a side effect of being treated as if she was just simply a child, but she felt so secure and comforted by them that not loving them was impossible.

So it was not a surprise when her mother questioned if she was having bad dreams. Gardenia decided to go along with it since it was easier than the truth, and suddenly, an idea came to her.

"You can tell me about it if you want darling, it might help to talk about it."

Gardenia was not sure how the art of Divination worked in a universe where it was actually possible for it to be a legitimate thing. In the books, it was always considered a sham with the exception of the fated prophecy that set the whole premise of the plot, so it was never talked about on serious terms.

She had no idea if it would work, but it was a gamble she wanted to take, just in case it could indeed work.

So Gardenia nodded and tried to get the story in the right way so it would sound believable. "I keep having this nightmare about Uncle Gid and Uncle Fabe. They're fighting people with cloaks, there is way more of them then they can fight, so they start to lose," she took a shaky breath before continuing, and she did not have to fake it. "And then there is this green light, and they're on the floor, and they look _dead_."

It was risky, a three-year-old having a dream about duels and Avada Kedravas being thrown at family friends, and she had made her mother quite alarmed if the look on the woman's face was any indication.

A few minutes went by before anything was said, and her mother's voice was very soft as if she was speaking to a frightened kitten. "Did you overhear anything your uncles said to make you have that sort of nightmare?"

Gardenia shook her head, a small frown on her face. This was the part that either was going to make the plan work or make her mother think she was a lunatic.

"No, I just started having them a while ago, and have weird dreams sometimes, just never... scary."

"Weird dreams? Like what?"

She frowned as if thinking, giving a pause before answering. "I sometimes dream Aunt Molly is pregnant again, but with a girl this time," Gardenia knew for a fact Molly still didn't know she was pregnant, but by this time hopefully was, if Ginny will still end up existing, and she hoped this would be enough to make her mother pause and contemplate.

There were not many things she knew about that would happen in the current year, and the things she knew were not happening before the Prewetts were fated to die, so they were not really much help.

Not to mention the what if's of what would happen if she could stop the events that would occur on that Halloween evening in a few months' time. What would be the consequences of that?

It made her feel guilty that stopping it wasn't a priority, but besides not knowing how to go about it without blurting out that she was actually a reincarnated soul with future knowledge if Voldemort didn't die that night, what would happen to the war?

It reminded her of the trolley problem, her situation a distant cousin that was not in any way easier to solve, but worse. If the choice was indeed between saving five people and killing one instead or simply letting destiny run its course, she would not be having such an internal conflict over it. She remembered something about an ethics professor of hers going on and on about the ethical roots of the trolley problem, but she always found that such a thing was not really a problem to her. It seemed quite obvious, actually. She felt like karma might be making her pay for always saying that no one liked moral philosophy professors that she would end up in such a stitch.

She only hoped she had not doomed herself by trying to pass off as a Seer.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Gardenia almost thought her mother had forgotten about the conversation they had, because a few weeks passed and besides a Dreamless Sleep Potion that one night, no word had been spoken about the topic.

It wasn't until Lucy received the news via an enthusiastic Fabian that Molly Weasley was pregnant with a girl, that the witch seemed to remember.

Lucy Fawley was not by any means stupid, the woman had been in Ravenclaw, and rightfully so. So when Gardenia first saw her reading a book about Divination, she was certain her mother was trying to connect the dots and figure about if that was a possibility for her child's dreams.

It seemed she got to a conclusion when one night, as she was tucking Gardenia in, she brought up the subject.

"Gardenia, I want you to pay attention to what I'm going to tell you ok?" She nodded firmly, wanting to pass a sense of seriousness that seemed necessary at the moment. "Your dreams, you can't tell anyone about them. They're special dreams, and some people might want to have them for themselves, so you have to be careful not to let anyone but me and your father know about them, alright?"

Nodding once more, Gardenia didn't question her mother's wishes for her to keep quiet about any possibility of prophetic dreams.

"Is it because my dreams come true?" The phrase sounded sweet, but in the context, it couldn't be grimmer. "Like with Aunt Molly?"

Lucy nodded, her face seemingly neuter, but Gardenia could see in her eyes the sorrow. It didn't take much to figure the woman did not want the burden of dreaming the future for her daughter.

"But they may not come true as well darling, the future is a fickle thing, and things can change in the blink of an eye."

It was unfair to ask her mother this, but Gardenia wanted some sort of reassurance that her uncles would at least be on high alert. "So does this mean that Uncle Gid and Uncle Fabe won't die?"

The glistening of unshed tears in Lucy's eyes was hard to miss, and the smile that she gave her daughter was weak, but the determination behind in her gaze was unmistakable. "No, my flower, not if I can help it."

That reassured Gardenia more than she could ever say, so she just smiled adoringly at the woman that gave her this life, before closing her eyes and feeling the press of soft lips against her forehead.

"Sleep tight Gardenia."

The last thing she thought about before succumbing to sleep was that maybe, things would be alright.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Both Gideon and Fabian had been around a lot more than usual, and they were obviously trying to reassure her that they would not going to die the horrible deaths that she had seen. That meant they knew what she had told her mother, and more than likely, some Order members knew too, which was not very reassuring give the fact they had a spy in their midst, but Gardenia was hoping that her mother had made some demands on who was to be privy about her daughter's abilities.

But still, she was not reassured in the least, she would not be until 1981 was behind them and the two Prewetts were alive and well.

When August rolled around and they were still ok, she felt like everything was going to be fine, and that maybe she could change things. However, Fate was a cruel thing, and it seemed that a reincarnated three-year-old was powerless to make a difference when it came to death.

The day started off normal, and it was going to be a good one Gardenia hoped, since her monotony would be broken as she was going to the Burrow to play with the twins. They had grown on her, much to her frustration.

She did question her maturity sometimes when around them, because she was certain that no self-respecting person would be having that much fun running around chasing toddlers to keep them from killing themselves on accident, and Gardenia had joined their antics more times than she was proud of. Apparently, they were a bad influence just as much as she was a good one.

It was when they were taking a break from playing to eat a small snack in the kitchen, that things turned sour.

Molly Weasley was suddenly very quiet, a letter that had just been delivered in her hand, and her face had paled making her look ghost-like.

"Mum, is something wrong?" Bill inquired, his ten years of age making him the most mature out of the brood of red-headed kids, and more aware of his surroundings, enough to realize that his mother was not alright.

Instead of answering, Molly let out a heartbroken sob, her hand covering her mouth as if to stop any sound from coming out, and by that point, every single one of her children was looking at her with various levels of shock, with the exception of Ron, who was asleep in his bassinet.

At that moment, Gardenia knew. She knew exactly what was written in that letter because only one thing would make the strong woman she had come to know in this life break down in tears in front of her kids.

Gideon and Fabian were dead, and she had been incapable of stopping it.

She didn't think before simply jumping out of her chair and hugging Molly, being the only one actually knew what was going on, Gardenia couldn't help but do her best to comfort her.

By the way that Molly hugged her back tightly, she could tell that the woman understood what she was trying to do.

Gardenia would cry later, right now it was Molly that needed to stop being strong for a moment.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

It had disturbed the twins greatly to see their mother shedding tears, but they had seen her cry when she found out they were going to be having a little sister, so they supposed it was not that big of a deal.

But nothing prepared Fred and George to see their best friend start crying as soon as their mum was out of sight.

She was always the one that didn't cry, they had grown accustomed to Gardenia being the strong one, the one that was a little more grown-up then them and took care of them in a way. So to see tears in her eyes and small sobs coming from the tiny girl made them want to cry as well.

But Fred looked at George, and George looked at Fred, and at that moment they decided to be the ones that comforted her when she cried, and that they could also protect her, just as much as she did them.

So with each of them on one side of her, they hugged Gardenia, and it seemed like her sobs just got stronger. But Fred and George stood firm, and just let their friend cry on their shoulders.

They would never know this, but it was in that moment that Gardenia swore that she would not let either of them die, not for as long as she drew breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lost track of how many times I rewrote this, but here it is. It hurts me to have to kill them, but it serves a purpose in shaping Gardenia, and from now on things will start to change.
> 
> I won't be focusing on her childhood, just bits and pieces until Hogwarts, and from then on things will start to pick up.
> 
> please leave a review if you can, they make me so happy and really motivate me to write sz


	4. Chapter 4

It would be a lie to say she had not been greatly affected by the loss she suffered.

It was different in a way to Molly's grief, so great and gut-wrenching that the woman seemed almost like a shell of herself for a while, only managing to make it through the day without breaking down because of her children, Arthur being her pillar of support.

Jacob's grief was a silent one, a very deep sense of loss that made the man more quiet than usual, rarely smiling anymore, and focusing wholeheartedly on his work for the first few weeks. Lucy was also affected, she might've not been as close to them as her husband, but they were important people in her life, and there was no doubt she loved them.

Her grief, however, had a sense of self-deprecation tied to it. Gardenia did not realize how much she had come to care about those two wizards until they had no longer been around. Knowing that she didn't manage to prevent their deaths made her want to cry all over again. She felt useless, what use was knowing things if, in the end, nothing would change?

In a sense, she knew it wasn't her fault, that the ones to blame were those that pointed their wands and uttered the killing curse, but it was one thing knowing something, and another to actually feel it. No matter how many times she tried to rationalize that she wasn't to blame, her feelings seemed bent on staying the same.

She clung greatly to Fred and George in the aftermath of the news, her attachment to them increasing more than she ever expected. They were surprisingly helpful, somehow they always knew when her mind wandered and ended up trying their best to make her laugh, and their innocent obliviousness to the world around them made it so she could almost forget about it all as well.

Time passed, and before she knew it, news of the Voldemort's defeat reached her ears.

The sorrow she felt for the Potters was not personal in the same way as for her uncles, but it was there all the same. Gardenia wished things could've been different, but that was something she knew changing would not work, so she settled for the next best thing.

Proving Sirius Black's innocence.

She had a vague plan in mind, there was not much she could orchestrate still being a toddler, but she would be dammed if an innocent man spent more than a decade incarcerated.

Not to mention, she didn't really want a mass murderer traitor living in the same house as seven children for twelve years, even if it was in Animagus form.

So Gardenia began to plan.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

It was a cloudy day when the first piece of the puzzle necessary for things to work out the way she wanted was put in place.

Gardenia, being at the Burrow, where she was more often than not ever since the war ended and her mother felt safe enough to reopen her plant shop, was sitting in one of the well-worn couches in the living room, a baby Ginny by her side nestled in the crook of her arm, and an open book in her lap.

The older girl doted on the only girl of the Weasley family, the redhead quickly making her way into Gardenia's heart, even though she was realizing it didn't take a lot for that to happen.

Gardenia took to caring for her with absolute ease, and she knew that was in part because once she had been an older sister, although her gut feeling also told her it hadn't been for long.

Even though Ginny was probably a little too young to really understand the words being read to her, being only six months, Gardenia was not deterred. She was only four years herself, well, her body at least, but Gardenia could only take so long pretending to not know the alphabet before she cracked and started truly reading, much to both of her parent's delight. Four years was young to start reading, but not unheard of, and she wasn't bothered by being labeled a prodigy when she started reading actual books instead of the basically purely pictures ones, as long as she could read the thing herself and not have to endure torturous lessons on basics.

It was during her reading one of the stories of Tales of Beedle and the Bard that she heard a commotion, and it was far from a surprise when she saw Fred and George in the middle of it.

"But Perce, why do you get to have him?" She could see Fred pouting at his older brother.

"Because I'm the one that found him!"

"We helped you catch him!" Came the exclamation from George.

"We should get to have him too."

"You two are just going to train him to play tricks on other people! And mum said it takes responsibility to have a pet, and she always says I have loads of it!" Percy stumbled on the word about the trait he was so proud of but seemed unbothered by that. Although still only six, he was already shaping up to be the most responsible out of the Weasley brood, Bill and Charlie included.

"We can have that as well," Fred argued. "Just tell us how."

"It doesn't work like that!"

"What are you lot fighting about?" She inquired, interrupting the arguing, and George quickly ran up to her and explained.

"Percy found a rat in the garden, and me and Fred helped him catch it, but he's saying that he should be the one that gets to keep him as a pet." By the look on the boy's face, he wanted her to side with them on the matter.

She frowned, knowing exactly who they probably found. "Why would you want a rat? They're dirt animals."

"We can give a bath so he'll be clean," George looked rather proud of his use of logic.

"Do you want to have the work of feeding him and cleaning up after him? If he is your pet, it's your job to do all of that." It seemed those were the magic words to get the twins to reconsider because both of them scrunched up their faces.

"See, that's what I mean!" Percy sounded vindicated by the point Gardenia brought up.

Pausing a moment in what could be said to be contemplation, if Gardenia tough such a thing possible for either of the twins, Fred quickly bounced back. "Eh, could we borrow him once in a while?"

Percy looked like he wanted to refuse, but thought that maybe going along with their request would grant him the thing he wanted, and so he conceded. "Fine, but he's still my pet!"

"If that means we don't have to clean up after him, sure." Fred smiled impishly, a small dimple forming on his cheek.

Gardenia couldn't help but smile as well, but not for the same reason as Fred. Her plan could begin now, and she was rather looking forward to it.

"Oh, you're reading Gin the Beedle and the Bard?" George had taken notice of the book in her lap that had been momentarily forgotten. "Can you read the Babbitty Rabbit one, please?"

Due to Fred and George not being quite able to read yet, they were quite fascinated by Gardenia's ability to do so, and never missed a chance to hear her read something for them.

Giving him a gentle smile, she nodded, and both Fred and George settled themselves around her, Fred sitting next to Ginny, his sister giving him an adorable toothless grin, and George on Gardenia's other side.

Looking for the story that George requested, finding it quickly due to how many times she had read it before, Gardenia began the tale. " _A long time ago, in a far-off land, there lived a foolish king who decided that he alone should have the power of magic._ "

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

It took a few weeks for the second piece of the puzzle to be put in place, but Gardenia wanted to make sure that it would have the greatest chance of success possible.

Her father worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, although not as an Auror, and that would actually serve her needs better. Jacob Fawley also held a seat in the Wizengamot, due to his family's hereditary seat. The Fawleys were part of the prestigious pureblood circle until before the war, the old family that helped shape much of the wizarding society being considered one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, even though that was quite the biased list. They were labeled blood traitors when her father, the heir to the House of Fawley married a muggleborn. Although he was now unwelcome at the events hosted by those with more extremist views, his political and financial power had hardly been affected.

That was the reason why, when she had supposedly woken up from a nightmare, she asked for him and not her mother.

"What did you see that woke you up, honey?" He was seated at the edge of her bed, a kind expression on his features. Gardenia held in her hands a warm glass of milk, a standard when waking up from her nightmares.

She might fake prophetic dreams, but she did suffer from night terrors, ones that brought back memories of pain, blood, and death. The manner in which she had lost her previous life was not very clear, but contrary to most things she forgot, that was one she preferred being forgotten if her nightmares were any indication of what happened. They had apparently been triggered by Gideon and Fabian's deaths, for she didn't have them before.

"Daddy, is it possible for an animal to transform into a person?" Her father looked confused by her question but nodded.

"Yes, some people have the ability to turn into an animal at will. It takes years of practice though, and it's not very common."

"In my dream, Percy's new pet rat can turn into a man, he doesn't seem very nice, he's wearing old clothes that look dirty, and he tries to hurt Percy," Gardenia explained. By this point in her life, her parents know not to take her dreams as simply dreams, so her father contemplates her words. She wasn't done, however. "He keeps laughing and saying something about how he fooled everyone into blaming someone named Sirius, but I'm not sure what he means."

Her father's eyebrows rose, and he looked fairly spooked. "He mentions someone named Sirius?"

She nods with what hopefully looks like childlike innocence. "Yeah, but the words don't make sense. He's rambling about having been a Secret Keeper and betraying them, and that Sirius wanted to hurt him for it, but that he was smarter and fooled him by cutting off his little finger and running away."

It was as close to explaining word by word the situation as she could get. During the time since her last rendezvous with trying to change things, she had managed to sneak a read on one of the books her mother read about Seers and found some interesting information.

The type of Seer she was impersonating was considered a passive one, not truly having an Inner Eye with which to see the future and recite prophecies, but being able to access a form of it during sleep, and seeing scenes of possible outcomes as dreams. It was a branch of dream interpretation, but being more precise due to the Seer being capable of seeing actual scenes and not just things related to future occurrences. However, the Seer would not be granted knowledge regarding the things seen, so if someone that didn't know what an Animagus was, saw a person turn into a cat in one of such dreams, they would still be unaware of it, simply having the information but not the explanation behind it.

It was, of course, very rare, and considering Gardenia was faking it, maybe it was indeed all a scam like so many people believed. But she needed at least her father to think it was true.

"Do you think the rat is can be a person Dad?" She tried to sound fearful. "If he is, you have to catch him so he doesn't hurt Percy."

She felt a bit manipulative at the moment, but it was for a good cause. Using a child's well-being was sure to make her father look into the matter.

"I'm not sure flower, but I promise I'll look into it."

" _Pinky promise_?"

"Pinky promise."

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Her father always kept his promises, making him pink swear was mostly just for fun, and a week later, when she went over to the Burrow, the first thing the identical faces that greeted her said confirmed her plan was working so far.

"Nia, you're never going to believe it! Remember the rat we found that Percy kept?"

"It turns out it was a wizard in disguise!"

"He was like Babbitty Rabbit, but she could turn into a rabbit, and he a rat!"

She was not even trying to keep track of who said what, just nodded along to their excited exclamations while they lead her to the kitchen. Usually, she made an effort to distinguish them, little details that if she paid enough attention she could clearly see, but when they were speaking so fast and without order, Gardenia just let herself be confused by who was who.

"Oh, Gardenia dear, you arrived at the perfect time, I just took this out of the oven." Molly greeted her with a smile, an apron tied to her front full of flour spots. There was a lovely smell in the air, and it didn't take long for the girl to figure out what it was.

"Apple pie!" If there was one thing that brought childlike actions out of Gardenia, it was that dessert, the one made by the Weasley matriarch in particular.

"Sit down you three, and I'll get slices for you."

Sitting in the kitchen table with the Weasley brood, minus Bill who had already started Hogwarts, Gardenia was very excitedly awaiting the promised pie, a perfect way to celebrate her father taking Peter Pettigrew into custody, which occurred after having talked to Arthur Weasley about the possibility of the rat not really being a pet, and having proved the assumption correct by means of an Animagus revealing spell. He did not mention the details about it to her, only that her dream had helped him catch a bad person and he was proud of her, but Gardenia could guess. The situation was now out of her hands, as she doubts she could intervene in the procedures of the wizarding law system, but she hoped a trial would be granted to Sirius to prove his innocence, since his main victim was very clearly alive and well, if only missing a finger.

"You really do like apple pie, don't you Nia?" Came the amused comment from the second eldest Weasley. "You're never this excited for much else."

She smiled sheepishly at Charlie but nodded. "It's my favorite food."

"It's a dessert," Percy corrected.

Fred frowned. "A dessert is still food."

"But it should be her favorite dessert, not food."

"She can have a dessert as her favorite food," George piped in.

The pointless argument was interrupted by the plates carrying the slices of the pie floating to settle themselves in front of each of them. Or it might still be going on, but at that point, Gardenia stopped paying attention to it in order to concentrate solely on eating the slice given to her.

She knows this absolute love for apple pie came from before, that when she was someone else, this was a common recipe for her mother to make, and the comfort that a slice of it could bring was almost impossible for any other food to match.

She heard the chuckle coming from her side which currently was not seating one of the twins, and glanced over to see Charlie smiling at her. "It's nice to see you so happy." If even he was commenting on her glee, apparently she really did not show much excitement over things. But what could she do, she didn't feel like doing so most of the time, and today she had double the reason to do so, with the arrest of a criminal and the presence of her favorite food, even if Percy seemed to oppose that classification.

Gardenia just smiled back at him turning back to her precious pie, and Charlie ruffled her hair, messing the ponytail that she sported. She slapped his hand away, trying to fix her honey-blond curls while frowning at him, but she wasn't able to maintain the expression for long before cracking a smile. At that moment, she realized she hadn't felt this happy in a while, maybe not since she had been reborn. The war was momentarily over, her plans had finally come to fruition, and she was surrounded by people whom she cared about.

Things were starting to take a turn for the better, and she couldn't be more glad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll see just a bit more of her child years before she goes to Hogwarts, hopefully, this is enjoyable nonetheless.
> 
> The fall out from her recent actions will be seen more on the next chapter, this was sort of the catalyst to a domino effect that will change more things, although, in the grand scheme of things, not much will actually change.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

_SIRIUS BLACK FOUND INNOCENT, REAL OFFENDER BEHIND BARS_

_There was quite the uproar in the Wizarding community when the renowned white sheep of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Sirius Black, was taken into custody for the murder of 12 muggles and former Hogwarts classmate Peter Pettigrew, on the night of All Hallows Eve following the most celebrated defeat of you-know-who._

_However, it has recently come to light that Black was in fact framed, the mastermind behind the plot being Pettigrew, who staged his death by cutting his little finger and disappearing by transforming into a rat Animagus, an ability he kept illegally hidden, which prevented the Ministry from being able to find the veracity of the matter, which would've been possible if not for the missing information._

_Following the apprehension of Pettigrew by a Ministry Official, the wizard was given a dose of Veritasium to confirm the events that lead to the massacre for which Black was condemned, and all were shocked to find the truth, which absolved Black of all crimes and placed Pettigrew as the sole perpetrator. The man in question is now in the custody of the Aurors and will be facing a trial in the upcoming weeks._

_This morning, Black was escorted from the Azkaban cell he had been in ever since his arrest and was given a trial to clear him of all previous charges, leaving him a free man._

_This turn of events if quite shocking, but we couldn't be more glad that the truth has its way of coming out, and that the Ministry valiantly did not rest until all facts were presented._

Gardenia wanted to laugh at the poorly veiled excuses for the Ministry's actions, disguised in praises that were not truthful, but she managed to control herself, and simply smiled at the copy of the Daily Prophet she managed to get her hands on.

It didn't take long for the news of Sirius' innocence to be publicly announced, his crimes and arrest had all been very broadly broadcasted, which Gardenia could've guessed by the fact that when he escaped in 1993, everyone except Harry seemed to know the extent of his crimes. She was glad he was being publicly exonerated, that was the least he deserved after spending a couple of months in Azkaban.

She would like to keep tabs on his situation, especially where it concerned Harry Potter, but she knew that her family wasn't involved with him on a personal basis, only that her father was put in charge of clearing his name due to having brought Pettigrew in.

Gardenia wasn't sure that Sirius would manage to have custody of Harry with Dumbledore pulling the strings to keep the boy in the blood ward, but she could hope. She always found ridiculous that Harry had to endure years of abuse for protection she had suspicions could be replaced with some other type of powerful ward if Grimmauld Place was anything to go by. Maybe Sirius free to do as he pleases will succeed to change that, she might never have personally met him, but Gardenia suspects he won't go down quietly if he's refused guardianship of his godson, especially once he finds out the circumstances in which he has been in.

But it's out of her hands, much to her displeasure. Gardenia was learning an awful lot about herself with this situation of powerlessness that had been forced upon her, and it seems she's a bit of a control freak.

To balance things out, she was glad to find that patience wasn't that hard for her, which was wonderful news when considering her best friends were a handful, and a short fuse when dealing with them would drive her nuts before she ever managed to set foot in Hogwarts.

Hearing a crash in the kitchen, she sighed and put the newspaper back where she had found it, hoping that neither of them had broken any bones this time.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Life could be incredibly boring when you had the body of a five-year-old but could not be entertained by the simple things that usually did the trick for children that age. Gardenia had found reprieve of her never-ending boredom by means of the two boys she considered her friends, but it wasn't like she could see them every day.

She had already taken up reading, but it took a lot of persuasion on her part to be allowed to read things that were not just fairytales or children specific stories. Gardenia decided that her mother was the easiest path to achieving such a goal, appealing to her knowledge craving side that played a part in her Hogwarts house placement. With some pleas to learn more about her ability to see into the future, Gardenia was granted permission to read some books on Divination, much to her delight.

But it didn't take long for her to go through the volumes her mother owned on the subject, and if she was being honest variety was key in dealing with tediousness.

So, one day where she accompanied her mother to her work, as it was becoming custom the more she grew up, Gardenia struck a deal with her mother.

She was perusing the books on the shelves of Flourish and Botts, her mother had allowed her to go from her flower and herbology shop situated not far from the bookstore, as long as she was back within the hour. An hour was not nearly enough, but she had already been lucky enough to get permission to buy three books of her choice, so she was not going to push it. Oh, how she loved that her mother's weakness was the power of learning, it made things so much easier.

She had already picked up one of her intended reads for the foreseeable future, another volume of Divination, but this time not about Seers, like those that her mother owned, but other methods to predict the future that did not necessarily rely on the Inner Eye. She didn't know yet how trustworthy the practice was, but Gardenia wasn't going to throw the possibility of actually being able to predict the future to some extent just because of a preconceived notion that it was a sham.

Making her way to another section, one about magical creatures and beasts, for even if you understood that you were now born in a world of magic, some parts like unicorns and centaurs were hard to conciliate with her previous notions of the world. She really wanted to take Care of Magical Creatures once she reached Hogwarts, but that was so far away, and it would only be possible in Third year to make things worse.

She was trying to find that dammed book that Hagrid used when he started teaching, the one that you had to pet to open, it had always amused her that a book like that could exist, but she wasn't having any luck, maybe they kept it hidden in case someone lost their hand to it.

"Are you lost?" A voice came from above, as it usually did when Gardenia was dealing with adults. She was a child, but she was also a short one, given her mother's own petite stature. She did not need to be a Seer to know that her future holds a lot of conversations with people taller than her.

"No, but I can't find the book I'm looking for." She hadn't bothered to look up to see who addressed her, more interested in looking for her book. One hour went by fast, and she wasn't nearly close to done.

"Where are your parents? Surely you didn't come to Diagon Alley alone." Finally looking at the man, she noticed his fair hair and pale skin, a few noticeable scars in his face, but kind amber eyes that transmitted worry for the small child he found wandering alone in a bookstore.

"I didn't, my mum has a shop and let me come here to buy books." She frowned, adjusting the hold in the book that was a little bit big when compared to her size. "But I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

The man chuckled, making his features soften even more. "I'm glad, your parents are right. It's just a small child alone gives me anxiety, now that I have one to take care of myself, I always end up thinking the worse."

Gardenia nodded and then frowned again when she realized that the second choice in her book lost regarding magical creatures would be on a shelf that was about three times her size in terms of height. "Hey Mister, do you mind seeing if you can find Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? It seems they put it in a shelf a little out of my reach."

"No problem, are you buying books for your mother as well?"

"No, just me."

His eyebrows rose, and he glanced at her. "Aren't you a little young for this type of reading material? At your age, the most I read was probably Tales of Beedle and the Bard."

"Been there, done that. I've read those more times than I can count, it got boring."

He laughed at her explanation, before taking a book off the shelf and giving it to her. With the volume now in her arms, she smiled at the man, thanked him, and went on her way. She still had to find a book about Potions, she wasn't sure how her mother would react to that one, but she wanted to be prepared for her future classes with a certain Professor, and she did always like chemistry, and Potions seemed to share attributes with it.

As for the man that helped her, he stayed in that corridor a while longer, baffled by the child he'd just interacted with. She reminded him a bit of Lily in her first year, but she'd been eleven, not five. A natural-born Ravenclaw, perhaps?

"Hey Moony, did you find that book on parenting that Andromeda recommended?" He was brought out of his thoughts by his best friend's voice, the dark-haired wizard had his hands filled with bags from the previous stores they had gone into, mostly containing child-related things.

"Not yet, got a bit distracted." Sirius shook his head as if he already expected this outcome.

"Should've known better than to let you loose on a bookstore and not expect you to get distracted." Remus smiled, it was nice to have this back, this part of his life that he thought would be gone forever after that fateful night. "Let's go find that book then, Andy swears by it."

Remus thought that the book was just a way for his friend's cousin to get them off her case about how to raise a child, but it seemed to placate Sirius to have some sort of guide as to how to raise his godson, after such a hard battle to get to have him, the man wanted to do his best, both for Harry and for his late parents. So Remus went along with it, even if he thought that a book would not exactly be helpful.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Gardenia did not realize she could fangirl about the characters that she began to perceive as real people until she met Sirius Black.

She wanted to knock her head repeatedly against a wall for forgetting the relation between her Auntie Andy and the ex-con, but she didn't even notice when she stopped thinking about the people around her as names on a page and family relations to other people, but to her, Andromeda Tonks was just her aunt, not really the outcast of the Black family who was related to Sirius. But the reality of that situation came crashing around her one Sunday morning when she and her parents went to have lunch at the Tonks' residence.

"Look how much you've grown! You'll soon be reaching my height!" It was nice of her uncle to say that, but it was the furthest thing from the truth. Gardenia was small for her age, and she doubted she'd be passing Ted Tonks height anytime soon, if ever.

"It's ok Uncle Ted, I know I'll be like my mum and have trouble reaching the top shelf," she commented, making her uncle chuckle.

"Well, Lucy held out hope up until her last year at Hogwarts."

She shrugged. "Mum's a dreamer." Her uncle laughed, picking her up and giving her a view she would probably only have in ridiculously high heels.

Her cousin, Nymphadora, was sitting in one of the couches in the living room, and promptly got up and snatched Gardenia out of her father's arms as soon as she saw them, hugging the tiny blond to her chest. Gardenia and Nymphadora, who would probably not be very happy to be referred to as such, even if only in her cousin's thoughts, were considerably close, especially when taking into account the age difference. Six years apart, but perhaps the fact they were both only children had something to do with it.

Sitting back down with now Gardenia on her lap, Nymphadora promptly filled the girl on the new things that have happened since they last saw each other.

The Sunday lunches at either the Fawley or Tonks residence was common occurrence ever since the war ended, and although not much actually happened in a week's time, the metamorphmagus always seemed to have something to tell her.

"And I got this on Wednesday! My birthday was a few weeks ago, but I wasn't worried about not being magical, obviously." She snorted as if the simple notion was funny. Which it was, of course, considering the question of whether or not Nymphadora would have magic was answered as soon as she was out of the womb. "I'm so excited! I can't wait to go to Diagon Alley, I'll finally have a wand!"

She was beaming, a winning smile on her face as she held the piece of paper of which she was so proud of. She handed it to Gardenia, knowing the younger girl would like to have a look at it. The letter was not much at first glance, the parchment was standard, and the words were written in very neat calligraphy that was probably not handwritten, otherwise, Gardenia was very sorry for Minerva McGonagall, it would be a pain when considering the number of letters to be sent. What was most special about the letter was the content, for even if only a short message and a shopping list, its meaning was great. Even after finishing reading it, she still held it, a look of wonder in her eyes.

"You'll get yours too, and then we'll have one year at Hogwarts together." Came the assurance and Gardenia smiled at her cousin. It was logical that to everyone else she'd be magical, she was a Seer in their eyes after all. But she was well aware that there was every possibility of her being as magical as she was in her previous life.

"I'll miss you during the year." She decided to say, still a truth, but not the one that was biggest in her mind.

The look on Nymphadora's face was as if her heart had just melted. "Oh Nia, I'll miss you too." Being hugged like a teddy bear took some getting used to, but by now Gardenia quite liked the hugs.

The sound of voices coming from the front of the house was strange, her mother and uncle were in the kitchen, as usual, the two siblings being the ones with culinary ability out of their respective marriages, their pure blood partners being able to burn water, as impossible as that seems. Her father was in the kitchen with them, if she remembered correctly, her aunt was unaccounted for, but even then, that did not explain the situation. It did not take long for her curiosity to be stated, even if the appearance of her aunt with two strangers and a toddler wasn't what she was expecting.

"That would be Nymphadora, my daughter, and Gardenia, my niece." She heard Andromeda say.

"Don't call me that mum!"

"Told you that name would cause trouble when she grew up." An amused voice sounded, coming from one of the two-man that had arrived.

"Oh hush Sirius, you just said that because you wanted me to name her after you."

Gardenia's eyes widened as she put two and two together, coming to analyze the newcomers in a different light. The man that had spoken, his darks hair reaching his shoulders being as black as night and quite lustrous, and grey eyes that seemed older than his outward appearance was standing next to Andromeda, in his arms a child no older three years. He himself looked not much older than mid-twenties, and if she had heard correctly, his name was Sirius Black.

Now, Gardenia had never much thought of her personal feelings regarding the information she had, after years of becoming used to her new reality, she rarely thought of anyone as a character, it seemed rude to do so, especially when she took into account that two of her favorite people didn't exist in that written work. But she did remember that her favorite character used to be the Marauder now standing in front of her, and although she hadn't given much thought to that while planning his freedom, the fact that he now stood in front of her was a different story. Because one of her favorite characters was real, and Gardenia did not know how to react to that without seeming insane.

Apparently, her silence and possibly spooked expression made the people around her think she was alarmed, which she was, but not in the way they though.

"Girls, this is Sirius Black, my cousin. He's family, as is this little lad here. His name's Harry, and he's Sirius's godson."

"Nymphadora I know, even held her when she was a baby, changed diapers and all that nasty stuff." His smile was charming, and by the way, it increased at seeing his cousin's frown at being called by her full name, he'd done it on purpose. Gardenia cracked a smile at that, and Sirius took notice of it. "You must be Gardenia, Jacob and Lucy's kid, right? Nice to meet you." She gave a little wave in return, not trusting her voice, and slightly curling herself up in Nymphadora's lap.

It was then that the other person in the room came into view, and Gardenia recognized him. It was the man from the bookshop, it's been a little over a week since then, and he looked exactly the same, if not a bit more tired. She frowned at him, confused as to who he was. Andromeda introduced him as well, and if Gardenia didn't want to hit her head on a wall before, she did now. She had met Remus Lupin and been none the wiser. It was probably for the best, second favorite character, and all that, her reaction to meeting him might've been a tad weird if she knew his identity.

The three adults settled in the couches around them, Remus smiling at her as if he remembered her, which he probably did. One of the nice things about being a child was that people did not expect her to join in conversations, and any quietness could always be chalked up to be shyness. So Gardenia decided to stay quiet, wrapped up in her cousin's arms, listening to the conversation absentmindedly, while her mind came to terms with the situation.

Her attention was caught by the other young child in the room, even younger than herself. Harry was now being held by Andromeda, and he looked quite content. Gardenia smiled, pleased to know her gamble paid off, and that Sirius managed to get custody. She would've hated to know that Harry was growing up unloved and mistreated, so seeing him for herself was good.

It didn't take long for lunch to be ready, and they all seated themselves at the dining table, Harry using the high chair that was once Nymphadora's since Gardenia could manage with just a cushion being placed on her seat.

Conversation flowed, her parents seeming to be familiar with Sirius and Remus, and everything was a more lively than usual due to the additions to the table.

After the meal, the adults moved to the living room to talk while the children were given the chance to play, which meant Nymphadora using her metamorphmagus abilities to entertain little Harry. Gardenia was not nearly as amused by the activity, it was interesting to see, but it had lost its sense of wonder a while ago, given how often she was in her cousin's presence.

"You don't look impressed." She heard a voice, turning around to look at Remus.

She shrugged. "Dora's hair is cool, but I'm used to it by now." 

"Did you start on any of those books you bought yet?"

She nodded. "I really like the Fantastic Beasts one, it's so fun to read about all the different creatures. And to imagine that Mr. Scamander actually met most of them!"

Remus chuckled, her excitement regarding the book clear. "Seems like you'll be wanting to take Care of Magical Creatures when you reach Hogwarts."

"Dad told me about those, he said the Professor was missing some marbles."

Laughing, Remus nodded in agreement to the comment. "He's not wrong, but it's still a very fun class, and maybe by your third year they'll have replaced the Professor."

Gardenia knew that such a change would be a little bit after that, but maybe there was a way to get Hagrid as a teacher earlier? She didn't know the details of Kettleburn's retirement, but apparently he had some missing limbs and an increasing lack of interest in actual teaching.

"What animal did you like the best?"

"Nifflers sound cool unless they steal your things," she mentioned. The illustrations that accompanied the creatures were also adorable, which was a big reason why she liked them quite so much. "But I think so far the one I like the most is the Zouwu."

"It's a Chinese creature, no?" At her nod, he frowned. "If I'm not mistaken, it's a large feline-like beast, the approximate size of an elephant."

"Yes."

"And why is it your favorite?"

"It's a very big cat. What's not to like?"

He laughed, the corner of his eyes crinkling. "I suppose that's reason enough."

"I also really like werewolves," she decided to say, without thinking it through too much. Given the way Remus stilled and looked, you would've thought she said that her favorite pastime was cannibalism.

"Those are dangerous beasts, why on earth would you like them?" To anyone else, the question might not seem anything out of the ordinary, simply a person that tough the creature to be a dangerous expressing concern, but due to her knowledge, Gardenia could hear the self-deprecation in the phrase.

Wanting to give a detailed speech about how werewolves didn't choose what befell them, and even with the loss of control during full moons, were still deserving of respect and rights, Gardenia had to hold her tongue since that would be a little extreme of an opinion for a child to have. So she settled for the next best thing. "They're like big dogs, of course I like them."

It was a simple answer one might expect from a kid, and for the time being, was all she could say on the topic. But in the future, she would most definitely be making some arguments on that front that relied more on facts and opinions and less on liking dogs. Remus seemed to take her answer as a just a child-like manner, of course, she would like werewolves because they're like dogs. So he smiled, laughed, and ruffled her hair. In his mind, lectures about how some creatures were dangerous would just have to wait until she was older so they'd be more effective, none the wiser to the reality of her also planning a future conversation on the topic.

But it was also nice that someone didn't think him a monster, no matter how misguided that notion seemed to him, and a selfish part of him wanted that to last a while longer.

Unbeknown to him, the child in front of him would never think him so, and as time went on, she would also be adding his name to an ever-growing list of people whose lives she was going to do her damn best to save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been the longest chapter so far in this story, and I'm hoping to keep this length as the pattern. I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was mostly to settle what happened on the previous one and introduce some of the characters into the storyline.
> 
> I'll not be going into much detail about Harry's life other than things that Gardenia will take notice of, but he will be raised by Sirius and Remus. That will affect his personality a bit, but not in an unrecognizable way.
> 
> The next chapter will feature quite the time jump as we'll be entering her Hogwarts years since I didn't want to focus too much on her childhood. I'd like to know your guesses concerning which house she'll be sorted into, that was one of the first things I decided about her character, but I'm curious to know what you all think!
> 
> Thank you for the kudos, bookmarks, subscriptions and especially the comments, they really make my day sz


	6. Chapter 6

Gardenia was feeling very anxious.

Her eleventh birthday had been a week before, and she still had not received her Hogwarts letter. No one seemed particularly worried about it, both her parents didn't even bring it up, which was expected, considering they had zero doubts about their child's magic abilities, but that only made Gardenia feel even more nervous.

The truth was, she had never done accidental magic. Such bursts of magic were due to emotions not being controlled, which was very common with children, but since she had the mind of a somewhat grown person, that meant she was very much in control. Sure, she was still capable of feeling like an absolute mess, but whatever it was that made someone prone to accidental magic, she lacked.

Or maybe she was a Squib. At this point, she was inclined to believe that over just being an emotionally aware person. But to her parents, she had been doing magic every time she had a vision since they had no clue that was a hoax. So even if she went to them and expressed her concerns, they would not make sense in their eyes.

So she settled for quietly panicking and praying to whatever entity reincarnated her that she would have magic, otherwise, it would be hard to explain how on earth she could predict the future, not to mention, being a muggle when you knew magic to be real would be very disappointing.

Gardenia was sitting outside of the Burrow, on her knees over a bed of flowers where Molly had requested she plant a few new buds since she had what the woman liked to call a green thumb. Molly had tried to give the task to her children, but she found that every single one of them ended up killing the plants, old and new. Gardenia didn't mind the task, she was glad to be of help and she was always happy to spend her time gardening. It seemed she had been aptly named, having flowers for her first and middle names. At times she wanted to be rubbish at gardening just so she wouldn't let destiny have that little laugh, but she adored the activity too much to truly be resentful of the quip.

She was also glad to be alone, recently she wasn't in the mood to socialize, the excited chatter about Hogwarts being grating when one was tortured with the possibility of not having magic.

"What has gotten you looking so down?" The inquiry came from George, who sat beside his friend.

"Nothing, I'm just concentrating so the flowers don't die."

George laughed. "You could plant those flowers with your eyes closed. And you usually do it with a smile, not a frown," she could feel his gaze, even though her eyes were still on the flowers in front of her. "What's wrong?"

Gardenia was very good at lying, she had to be, but when faced with a concerned friend she had a hard time doing so.

"I haven't gotten my letter yet," she admitted, in a low voice.

A few moments passed before he spoke again. "So what?"

Surprised, Gardenia finally looked at George, who was sitting cross-legged with his elbows on top of his knees, head tilted to rest upon one of his hands. "So what? It means I might not be magical!"

Neither George nor Fred were aware of her supposedly prophetic dreams, as it was, they were still children, and no one had seen any reason to share that with them, Gardenia included. "Why would you think that? It took Charlie a whole month after his birthday before his letter arrived, Hogwarts has some lame owls like Errol."

Gardenia sighed, frustrated. "But Charlie had done plenty of accidental magic, hadn't he?"

George was quiet for a minute after that. "I think that is just because you're very grown-up Nia, you're the one that always thinks things through, so you don't really burst magic, because you control it."

That had crossed her mind, in different terms then what George had just proposed was the reason, but in the end, the same thing. The problem was, Gardenia did not want to get her hopes up. She was a muggle before, who is to say she is not one again? That tiny little though had always been in the back of her mind, but the slight delay and lack of accidental magic had made the doubt grown until she couldn't ignore it anymore. "But what if I'm a Squib?"

"You're still going to be you, and I promise to send you weekly letters about everything me and Fred do, so you can scold us all you want."

The answer to her prayers came finally on a Tuesday in the form of a barn owl carrying a letter, and her smile couldn't have been bigger as she took the mail in her hands and gave some treats to the owl. It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and suddenly, her excitement was not only because she was an actual witch, but because she'd be going to Hogwarts. George had smiled as if telling her ´I told you so´ the moment he heard, and she didn't even have it in her to get annoyed at his smugness.

Gardenia was too excited about all that awaited her.

Her mother took her to buy her supplies for the upcoming year of studies the next day, not caring in the least that it was January, and September was more than half a year away. Gardenia simply looked too happy about the prospect of a trip that would involve buying school books for Lucy to deny her, especially if it meant her child would read them before even having classes. During the years, Gardenia became better and better at playing on her mother's weaknesses concerning anything related to learning, and she was not apologetic in the least about it.

The only thing that Lucy made her promise, was that Gardenia would not use her wand at home unless either she or her father gave explicit permission and were supervising her. You would think that having a Ministry employee in the household would make for following the rules imposed by them, but the reality was, her father would probably give her free reign of using magic in the house, once that the ministry didn't really have the capability to detect who exactly was the person to perform a spell, only the location, and someone with magical parents would not be caught.

Leaving her own shop in the care of one of her employees, Lucy took a very excited Gardenia to buy everything she would need, books, robes, cauldron, and Potions supplies, leaving the best for last. Ollivander's shop was not very eye-catching from outside, but just seeing the sign was enough to have her practically jumping in elation.

The little bell on the door rang as they entered the store, and no later than they got in front of the counter did a man appear, his face wrinkled and hair faded to gray, but eyes still shinning bright and a small smile present of his features as if it never left his face.

"Miss Tonks, Pearwood, dragon heartstring core, eleven inches, rigid, if I recall correctly?"

Her mother smiled, nodding. "Yes, although I'm now Mrs. Fawley."

"Oh the Fawley family, how many wands have we supplied them over the centuries." The man reminisced. "So this must be young Miss Fawley, here for her first wand." Gardenia nodded, biting her lip in nervousness. Ollivander was quite the character, no description could quite translate the odd feeling she was getting like he knew so much more than what he should. "Which is your wand arm?"

She held up her right hand, and measuring tapes were levitated to measure her arm and forearm, which she couldn't really see the point of, but who was she to question it. It didn't take long, and she soon was handed her first wand to try. It was Rowan wood, dragon heartstring core, 11 inches, and slightly flexible. She held it in her hands, and after an incentive from Ollivander, waved it in a circle. No sooner than she did that, the empty case of the wand flew towards a wall, and she gave Ollivander back the wand with a sheepish smile.

"It is rare to match a wand on the first try, no need to worry. Let's try this one. Ashwood, unicorn hair core, ten inches, rigid."

Nothing happened with that one, and neither with the next six she tried out. She was frowning at this point, becoming frustrated with the lack of success. She felt a weight on her shoulder, the warm feeling of her mother's hand making her turn to face the fair-haired woman who held a compassionate smile in her face. "It took your father no less than thirteen tries before he found his wand."

"Oh yes, I remember that Fawley boy, I was quite at a loss after a particular Alderwood wand didn't work, but now that you remind me of that, I think I have the perfect one for you." He went to the back of the shop, coming back after a few minutes holding a royal blue colored box. "Hazelwood, phoenix feather core, twelve and three-quarter inches, and reasonably supple flexibility."

The wand was a light brown, the handle being intricacy carved with vines and leaves, and as soon as Gardenia held it, she could felt a tingling sensation from her fingertips to her toes. Just as she waved it a slight breeze ran through the shop, and when looking at Ollivander, he had a pleased expression on his features.

"Hazelwood wands are partial to witches and wizards who are very in tune with their emotions, being affected by moods and general state of mind of their holder. However, I find that they are capable of quite outstanding magic in the hands of the skillful, which more than makes for such minor discomforts." Gardenia analyzed the object in her hands, she had only ever dreamed of holding such a thing herself, and now not only was that happening, but it was hers. "This particular one has been gathering dust for some time now, my great-grandfather was the one to make it, but now it seems to have finally found its master."

After paying seven galleons for the wand, they left the store, Gardenia still holding onto it, almost afraid she would misplace it if she lost sight of it.

"We have one more stop before going back," her mother informed her, a sly smile on her face.

Furrowing her brows, Gardenia went through the list of items and couldn't think of anything missing. When they kept walking and she saw in the distance the animal shop, her eyes widened and she looked at her mother. "I thought you said we already had a family owl, and I didn't need one for myself."

"Yes, but I never said anything about other pets, did I?"

Containing her excitement as to not squeal in delight, Gardenia all but dragged her mother the rest of the way to the shop. The Magical Menagerie was a small shop, filled with cages, each of them with a different animal inside. It wasn't the best smelling place she had ever been in, reminding her of the smell of a barn, and she was slightly indignant with the fact all these animals were caged in what didn't look like very comfortable spaces. She approached one of the sections which seemed to house the nifflers, and after taking a closer look inside, it seemed that the cage had one of those Tardis bigger on the inside charm, which she supposed was an improvement from what she initially thought.

"Remember that Hogwarts only allows owls, cats, or toads, so you're limited in what animal you can acquire." Nodding, Gardenia started to peruse the store, walking only through the cat section, for she knew herself and didn't want to become enamored with something she wouldn't be able to have.

She caught sight of a black cat, most of them were either sleeping or completely ignoring anyone who came near, but this one was staring straight at Gardenia as if beckoning her to approach. Getting closer, it tilted its head, yellow eyes looking into hazel, and at that moment, Gardenia fell in love. Cooing and reaching her hand inside the cage to pet the cat, it melted into her hand, purring. "How would you like to come home with me?"

A meow sealed the deal, and Gardenia left the shop with a bag filled with cat things and a black kitten in her arms, who she named Hecate.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

"Remember to keep out of trouble, and pay attention to all your classes." Her mother said for what seemed to be the hundredth time, hugging Gardenia tightly. Lucy was proving to be more of a clingy parent than Jacob, which she hadn't expected, given how much more emotional her father was when compared to her mother.

"I'll be fine, you don't have to worry about me."

"I'm your mother, it's my job to worry about you."

After one more hug, Gardenia grabbed her trunk, which mercifully had a charm cast on it to make it as light as a feather, and waved goodbye.

Joining the twins, they had found a compartment almost immediately, the two Weasleys having heard multiple times that getting an empty one was essential if they wanted to enjoy their trip, for whoever got there first held a sort of unsaid authority by the rule of first come first serve, and you didn't want to get stuck in a compartment with someone annoying.

Gardenia didn't mind that logic, because it gave her the peace to close her eyes and rest, since she had an unfortunate case of motion sickness, and so far, no spell or potion had managed to help her with it. Fred and George were aware of this, and after threatening to aim vomit on them if they didn't leave her alone for the majority of the trip, they were content to leave her to her own devices.

She found that closing her eyes and trying her best not to move was the best course of action, and soon she was dozing off with her head resting upon the window.

It felt as if no time passed at all, but soon she was awake and in dire need of going to the loo. She was dreading it because there was a high chance she would regurgitate her breakfast at some point, she only hoped it would be while she was in a short distance of the toilet.

She managed relatively fine until actually getting to the restrooms, where things took a turn for the worse. Just as she was about to go and dry her hands, she felt the gathering of saliva in her mouth and knew precisely what was about to happen. Turning quickly toward the stalls, she bumped into a figure, and the two of them lost their balance, falling to the ground. The other girl's apologies were interrupted by Gardenia emptying her stomach's contents on the girl's shoes.

"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry. I have terrible motion sickness, I was dreading something like this from the moment I got onto the train." The girl was doing her best to keep both her feet away from herself and looked at Gardenia sympathetically.

Fortunately, she was not berated. "It's alright, I have it too, but on brooms, so imagine vomiting from twenty feet high and practically showering someone in it."

Gardenia couldn't help but laugh, getting up and helping the girl. She quickly reached for her wand that was tucked into one of her boots, as she had seen on that TV show she watched in her life before, and she had to admit, it was practical and cheaper than a wand holster. Searching her mind for the damned spell she'd seen her mother do so many times before and that she had practiced in her room, spilling juice on her rug just to clean it and spill it again.

" _Tergeo_." Instead of the puke disappearing as it should have the charm had been done perfectly, it only left the shoes and went instead to the floor, causing Gardenia to groan frustratedly. "I don't have it quite under control yet, but at least your shoes are clean."

The girl's blue eyes were wide, and she was looking at Gardenia with amazement. "That was the cleaning spell, right? I've seen it done plenty, especially after my brother decides to play Quidditch when it's raining and then spreads mud all over the floor after, but I've never tried it before."

Smiling sheepishly, Gardenia nodded. "I wanted to try and practice a few spells before term started, especially useful ones, but it's not as easy as it seems." Realizing no introductions had been made, Gardenia quickly did so, extending her hand for a greeting. "And I'm sorry again, I feel really bad about that."

"Warrington. Celeste Warrington." She took Gardenia's hand, giving it a firm shake. "Really, it's alright. We should probably find a prefect though, to use a vanishing charm on the mess on the floor, before someone slips on it."

Nodding in agreement, the two of them went in search of a badge-wearing older student, making small talk on the way. Thankfully Gardenia was feeling better, a side effect of emptying her stomach. She hoped that feeling would last long enough for her to at least get back to her compartment and change into her robes.

They were successful, finding a Ravenclaw prefect that was also a girl, and was sympathetic to Gardenia'a plight, even giving her a mint. She started to make her way back to her compartment, Celeste in tow.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" The brunette asked, fiddling with her sleeves.

"I'm not sure, I'm actually curious as to what it'll be." Gardenia was hoping for Gryffindor, if only for her life to be easier, but she knew she had traits of other houses that could mean the Sorting Hat decided on another. It took her opinion into consideration, of course, but she didn't want to beg to be put somewhere she didn't fit. "How about you?"

"Oh, Slytherin is part of the family tradition, so probably there."

"Is that what you want, though?" The way Celeste spoke was as if she was expected to be sorted there but wasn't particularly keen on the idea.

"I want to make my parents proud, and it seems like a nice house."

"I'm sure you'll do great no matter where you're sorted."

Celeste smiled, and soon they reached Gardenia's compartment. She invited Celeste to come in and stay for the rest of the trip, but the girl needed to go back to her own compartment to change into her robes, and also mentioned her brother would probably get worried if she didn't come back. Exchanging farewells, they both went their own ways, hoping to meet again during the term.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

After they arrived, Hagrid herded all the first years toward the boats, and Gardenia, who was already small by normal standards, was completely awed at seeing just how tall the half-giant was, the movies didn't do him justice, considering they had to use an actual actor and probably didn't want to use special effects on something so minor. He was almost twice the size of a grown man and just as wide, creating an intimidation image to a bunch old eleven-year-olds, and if Gardenia didn't know he was actually a teddy bear with a heart of gold, she might've been a little taken aback as well.

They were instructed to separate into groups of four, Gardenia, George, and Fred got into a boat together with another boy, who looked very scared of Hagrid and even more frightened at the prospect of the boat trip. Both the twins realized this, and as soon as they left shore, the two started to playfully rock the boat, each time pretending to almost fall over.

"I heard from Charlie that there is a giant squid in the lake, and it rescues students that fall into it," Fred mentioned, smiling mischievously. The poor boy looked positively spooked at that, his face going paperwhite.

"Do you think that's true?" George asked.

"Don't know, how about we test it?"

"You're going to give this kid a heart attack, and if you don't stop you'll be finding out if there is a squid, but by yourselves." Gardenia admonished.

The boy looked even more scared if that was possible, and Gardenia tried giving him a kind smile. "Look what you've done now Nia, you scared the guy," Fred joked but stopped trying to turn the boat over and effectively give them all a freezing cold bath.

The castle was now clearly visible at the end of the lake, and of all of the things that Gardenia had seen in her life so far, the other one included, it definitely made the list of top impressive things. The architecture was simply beautiful, and the sheer size was incredible. It almost felt like standing at the bottom of a mountain and looking up, and Gardenia couldn't have been more amazed.

After docking, they were guided up to wooden double doors, were Hagrid knocked three times, and they opened to reveal a witch in a pointy hat and with an austere look in her face. She was tall, her hair was gathered up in a neat bun, and Gardenia knew her to be Minerva McGonagall, for she couldn't be anyone else. She led the group of young students through the castle until reaching a large foyer, where a door in the right was located with noises coming from it. Bringing everyone into a side room, she waited until most people's attention was directed towards her before speaking, Gardenia having to elbow both Fred and George in the stomach to make them stop talking.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. My name is Professor McGonagall, and I'll be leading you shortly into the Great Hall for the start of term banquet. Before the feast, you'll all be sorted into a House. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be a kind of family at Hogwarts. You will attend classes with the rest of the students in your House, sleep in the dormitory of the House, and spend your free time in the common room." Some students seemed nervous at the prospect of a ceremony, the gingers on either side of her unaffected because they had pestered Percy into telling them how it worked.

McGonagall went on to describe the four houses, telling them she would be back soon to bring them into the Great Hall. Murmurings began while they waited, speculations about what the manner of sorting was, as well as guessing where they would be put into. At the very back of the room, a girl shrieked, bringing everyone's attention to ghosts that were now floating around. A few of them started talking about themselves to any who were listening, some of the first years were fascinated while others were terrified, being a nice mix of reactions. One of the ghosts started to talk about Hufflepuff, who she presumed was Fat Friar, when his gaze stopped on her and he froze, or at least, that was what seemed to happen, it was difficult to tell when the person was a bit translucent.

He was probably about to exclaim something that would bring very unwanted attention toward Gardenia, but McGonagall came back, dispelling the gathering of phantoms. Gardenia sighed in relief, happy to avoid any and all interactions with the undead residents of the castle, just in case they knew more than they should, which going by what had just transpired, they might. Avoiding ghosts couldn't be that hard, hopefully, she can manage that for seven years.

Leading them into the Great Hall, Gardenia's thoughts were directed toward the scenery around her, four long tables that the rest of the school's student body was currently occupying, along with the long table at the end where staff sat. It was a little uncomfortable to have that many eyes on them, but not being alone helped the feeling of nervousness.

After reaching the end, the hat sitting upon a stool seemed to gain life and burst into song.

" _I've done this job for centuries_  
 _On every student's head I've sat_  
 _Of thoughts I take inventories_  
 _For I'm the famous Sorting Hat._

_I've sorted high, I've sorted low,_   
_I've done the job through thick and thin_   
_So put me on and you will know_   
_Which house you should be in..._

_Are you afraid of what you'll hear?_   
_Afraid I'll speak the name you fear?_   
_Not Slytherin! Not Gryffindor!_   
_Not Hufflepuff! Not Ravenclaw!_   
_Don't worry, child, I know my job,_

_You'll learn to laugh, if first you sob._ "

Applause ran thought the hall, and Gardenia was impressed, if the Sorting Hat had a song for each year, how did he ever manage to come up with so many? She guessed he recycled verses now and then because a thousand years was a long time, and she was not even sure there were enough words to be able to do that.

Professor McGonagall, now that the hat finished his show, unrolled a scroll and started calling out the students in alphabetical order. Having a surname that began with a letter in the first half of the alphabet, it did not take too much time before she herself was called.

"Fawley, Gardenia."

She sat on the bench and McGonagall put the hat on her head, it was a little too big for her, making the brim cover her eyes and keeping her from seeing the hall and all the eyes looking at her.

_Oh, how curious. I don't think I ever sorted someone like you before._

Hearing a voice in her head was not exactly pleasant, it made her feel a bit exposed, not to mention that hearing voices was usually one of the things that managed to send someone to an insane asylum.

_Yes, definitely not usual. You have a sharp mind, very intelligent when compared to your peers. Ravenclaw will do, perhaps?_

Oh, that wouldn't work. The password for that house's common room was riddles, and she was quite bad at them. Gardenia did not want to spend hours outside her common room for an inability to solve puzzles. Not to mention, her intelligence, when compared to other eleven-year-olds, wasn't really a credit to her, it was more collateral of other factors such as being reborn.

_I suppose that would be a pity. Slytherin might work well, you possess quite a sly mind, but your ambitions are not that great when it comes to yourself, they seem to be more in favor of helping others._

She guessed that could be true, Slytherin did sound fun, but it would not work well for her, considering the people she was close too were mostly in other houses. In fact, one house in particular.

_Oh no, Gryffindor would not suit you at all._

Her eyebrows raised, and she felt quite offended. Was this hat actually insulting her by implying she was a coward?

_Not at all my dear, I'm simply saying that the traits of that particular house are not the most prevalent within you, you do have bravery, but one of a different sort. You are more likely to stand in the sidelines and plan your victory than march to the frontlines without much thought and try to achieve it any way you can._

She was still miffed about the pseudo insult, but she could see what the hat meant. That wasn't great, she truly wanted to be in the same house as the twins, and eventually Harry, so she could keep an eye on him more easily.

_Ah yes, we've reached the point I was searching for. You possess quite a bit of loyalty, and a very good heart, your ambitions tie into your desire to protect and help, so I believe that one House, in particular, would be best in helping you along the way._

She didn't expect this, but it did make sense, in a way. Her father would be pleased, at any rate, following the family tradition and whatnot.

"HUFFLEPUFF"

The hat was lifted from her head, just in time for her to see the hall bursting into applause, one table being the more enthusiastic than the others. She headed over to the Hufflepuff table, passing Fred and George on the way, and smiling at them. They didn't look surprised by her sorting and grinned back at her with identical thumps up in her direction. She sat down on the section of the table where the first years were, so far only two others had been sorted, one boy and one girl.

The boy had dark hair and bright grey eyes and was smiling as he extended his hand to her. "Hello, I'm Cedric Diggory, nice to meet you."

Gardenia took his hand a gave a shake, smiling back at him. "Gardenia Fawley, pleased to meet you." If one knew her well and was looking closely, you could see the slight panic in her eyes. It was not nice to meet a person when you knew exactly the way they would die.

She supposed things would be quite different now that Pettigrew was out of the scene, but Gardenia had learned her lesson with preventing death, and she would not take anything for granted. So as far as she was concerned, Cedric was not safe. But she hoped that would change in time.

She was about to turn to the girl that was also a first-year, intending to introduce herself and get to know the first of the girls she would be sharing a dorm with for the next seven years when she heard her name being called.

"I knew it! You have just won me a bet, my dear cousin." She heard Nymphadora before seeing her, the older girl quickly going in for a hug, embracing Gardenia from behind and squeezing.

"You bet on which House I'd end up in?" To be honest, she was not surprised. "Who was the bet with?"

"Charlie, he bet Ravenclaw, I bet Hufflepuff." Nymphadora sat next to her, standing out as the sixth year in the sea of first and second years that predominated on that section of the table.

The sorting was still going on, and it didn't take long for the list to reach the letter W.

"Warrington, Cassius." It seemed Celeste's brother was in fact her twin, if he was also a first year. He looked very much like her, shame shade of blue eyes and facial features that were similar enough to make a connection, but while his sister's hair was a chestnut brown, his was a dark brown so deep it almost looked black. It didn't take long for the hat to shout it's choice, the green and silver house alighting with cheers.

"Warrington, Celeste." She was obviously nervous, and when her eyes met Gardenia's in the brief moment before McGonagall put the hat on her head, the already sorted girl smiled, hoping to reassure her.

"SLYTHERIN" The sorting took much longer than her brother's, reaching almost five minutes if Gardenia's sense of time was right, but the cheers were just as loud.

After her, it was the last name Weasley that was called, and Fred made his way up to the bench first. Gardenia focused her attention on him, she hoped that his and George's sorting wouldn't change, she would love to be in the same house as them, but Gryffindor was where they should be, not only for the chain of events of the next few years but also because it fits them. It took longer than she expected, but the Sorting Hat soon shouted it's choice, and it was indeed the red and gold one.

When the hat was taken off his head, you could see a frown in his face, but soon Fred grinned, making his way to the Gryffindor table, giving a wave to Gardenia when he caught her eye. Next was George's turn, and takin less time than Fred, but in the end, he too was put in the lion den.

After that, only a few people were left, and as soon as the last person was called and sorted, Dumbledore stood to make his speech. It was quite the experience to see him in person, he was really someone to behold, he looked almost the embodiment of a wizard which most people would describe, the long beard and semilunar glasses together with his robes and hat, giving him simply an aura of magic. It was pretty much how she had always imagined Gandalf as well if you took away the glasses and put him in gray robes.

Gardenia would be lying if she said she paid attention because she was too occupied glancing at the ceiling and everything around her to process the words being said by Dumbledore, but at this moment she was glad she sorta already knew what was being said, minus the dangers of the third floor which would not be present for two years still.

As the food appeared magically on the table, she dug in, happy to be finally enjoying the first of many nights at Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted to explain something about this story, because I noticed there are usually two types of reincarnated character stories in the HP fandom, the one where the character decides to isolate themselves and master magic, delving into the why's and how's of spell casting and the magical world, while avoiding the plot, and the one where the character tries to change things and becomes part of the plot
> 
> just in case someone is not sure yet, mine is the second type
> 
> Gardenia will not at any point become a genius at magic, that is not who she is, she has no interest in the mechanics of magic, and while learning about it is something she is very enthusiastic about, she is fine with learning at the pace that everyone else is learning, minus a few exceptions she knows can come in handy. I kept details about who she used to be very vague, because to her, now she is Gardenia, she thinks of this second life as simply hers, and wants to do everything she can for it to be the best it can be
> 
> She doesn't think only in terms of plot, which means there will be a great focus on the relationships between characters, inter-house relations, and eventually even romance. Caring about others is her motivation, if she was a more selfish person, knowing that everything would turn out well in the end would mean she'd high tail to Ilvermorny and not set foot in Europe until it was all over
> 
> I just wanted to make that clear, so yeah  
> Thank you for reading and see you next chapter


	7. Chapter 7

The Great Hall was filled with lively chatter, first years getting to know each other, and the older years catching up with friends about what they did during summer.

Nymphadora had returned to her seat amongst the sixth years, saying she wanted her little cousin to socialize and make friends in her own year, but not before she had tried her best to embarrass Gardenia.

"Your cousin seems nice." Cedric, who was sitting in front of her, remarked.

"Yes, she is, but she takes her job of making sure I have enough mortifying memories down the lane way too seriously."

Cedric chuckled, and a girl with short brown-reddish hair joined the conversation. "She's a metamorphmagus, isn't she? Her hair changed colors twice!"

Nodding, Gardenia turned her attention to her fellow first year. She decided to introduce herself in a manner most people around her would hear, thus limiting the amount she would actually have to do so.

The girl with the short hair grinned and extended a and for Gardenia to shake. "Heidi Mcavoy, future Hufflepuff Quidditch team captain."

Gardenia quirked her brow at the girl's confidence but shook her hand, and Cedric looked affronted. "I'm sorry to inform you, but that is going to be me."

Heidi scoffed playfully, puffing her chest. "We'll see, first you have to make it into the team next year."

"Ditto, let's see who'll be better than," Cedric replied good-naturedly.

"What is a metamorphmagus?" The girl sitting to her left, the same one that had been sorted before her, inquired with a rather meek voice.

"Oh, you must be muggleborn, right?" Heidi said, leaning a little into Gardenia's personal space to get a better look at the girl.

She gave a small nod, shyness radiating out of her. Heidi didn't let that stop her, and started explaining to the best of her abilities what that type of wizard was, sparing no expenses when it came to enthusiasm. "What's your name, by the way?"

Looking startled as if she had forgotten that she had not introduced herself, the girl blushed. "Annabel Entwistle."

Conversation flowed, and soon people's bellies were filled, and it was time to head down to the common room. Two students got up and approached the section of the table where they were, calling for everyone's attention. They were the two fifth-year prefects, and so tasked with their first duty after being nominated for the position, taking care of a bunch of kids, or at least guiding them to the common room.

"I'm Gabriel Truman, and this is my fellow prefect Beatrice Haywood."

They both looked nice enough, Gabriel with his curly hair and kind smile, and Beatrice with a pixie cut that made her face look fairylike and bright blue eyes. Gathering the group of first years, they started to make their way out of the Great Hall and down a flight of stairs.

"Our common room is located in the basement of the school, and if I'm completely honest with you all, it's the best located one." Gabriel smiled impishly, and while most of those around her took it for house pride, Gardenia knew that he probably meant it being located so close to the kitchens.

She always wondered if the Hufflepuff students knew about the entrance to the kitchens, and this seemed to confirm that it was common knowledge amongst the badgers.

They arrived in the basement and stopped in front of a stack of fairly big barrels, which was located in a nook in the right-hand side of the corridor. Gardenia could see several paintings lining the walls, most of them depicting some kind of food, and at the end of the corridor, a gigantic painting of a silver fruit bowl, which was way less inconspicuous than Gardenia expected.

"Hufflepuff is the only house that doesn't have a password, what we must do instead is tap the second barrel from the bottom, in the middle of the second row," Beatrice pointed at the barrel. "And tap it in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff."

She did so, tapping once of every syllable, with pauses that mimicked how you would say it out loud.

The lid of the barrel swung open, and a passage was revealed. It looked a bit like a cave entrance, and a few steps had appeared to make it easier to enter it since it was a little above the floor. "Don't worry about the rhythm, it's really easy to do it after you try it out a few times, I just don't recommend practicing it in the actual barrels, for if the wrong rhythm is used, or you tap the wrong barrel, you'll be doused in vinegar," Gabriel said, grimacing. "And trust me, you do not want that to happen to you."

That seemed a bit extreme if you asked Gardenia, as far as she knew, this was the only common room that would punish a wrong attempt at entering, while the other houses simply barred access. It showed that Hufflepuff was not all that passive, and Gardenia liked that a lot.

Beatrice went in first, the first years following behind her, while Gabriel stayed behind to make sure there were no stragglers. Gardenia was at the front with Heidi, who was jumping in excitement.

The cave-like passageway was short, and in the end, another set of steps led down into the actual common room. It was a round room with circular windows at the top of the walls, from which you could see rippling grass and dandelions outside. On most of the windowsills, potted plants were placed, as well as various hanged ones from the ceiling. The room had a nice, warm, and welcoming feeling to it, the ceiling not being very high like it was in other places around the castle, providing a cozy atmosphere to the room. Around the room were overstuffed sofas and armchairs decorated with yellow and black blankets and cushions, with center and side tables placed around them. In the middle of the wall directly facing the entrance, there was a fireplace with a large, honey-colored, wooden mantelpiece filled with carvings of badgers, and above it, a portrait of a kind looking witch with brown hair and blue eyes, sporting a smile and wearing a yellow dress and a black cloak.

"Boys and girls have separate dormitories, and you'll be sharing rooms with those in your year," Beatrice explained. Pointing to two round doors, each on one side of the room. "You can access them through those doors, girls to the right, boys to the left."

Gabriel, who was now standing beside his fellow prefect, gave them a smile. "And before any of you even try, boys should be aware that without permission, trying to enter the girl's dorms will result in vines physically restraining you, and any attempts of magic to free yourself will not help your case."

It seemed with every new thing Gardenia learned about her common room, she found more ways in which Helga Hufflepuff had been rather wicked when designing the place.

"Do you know that from experience?" One of the boys asked, Anthony Rickett if she recalled correctly from the sortings.

Laughing, Gabriel shook his head. "I haven't tried that myself, but every once in a while someone will try it, even if it is just to see if what was said is true."

Beatrice narrowed her eyes at him. "Now, I seem to remember an instance in our third year when you had the brilliant idea to place flowers and chocolate for Valentine's in my sister's bedside table, and were found in the morning held up by vines."

The first years laughed, and Gabriel blushed.

"If you have any questions, you can always come to either one of us, of any of the other prefects. Have a nice first night in Hufflepuff!"

They smiled so brightly it felt like looking at the sun, and Gardenia smiled back. She was starting to think her house placement was indeed the right one, and she was glad for it.

Heading to her dorm room with the rest of the girls in her year, they entered the round door and started walking until they reached the — also round — door that had a carving of a 1 in it. The whole setup of halls, round doors, and earthy feeling reminded her of the Shire, and how she imagined Baggin's End was. They were also technically living in a hole in the ground, just like hobbits.

The room was circular, also decorated with plants in the windowsills, and the five poster beds lining the walls, the headboards against the wall. Their trunks were in the foot of the beds, and Gardenia saw hers in the one on the middle, Hecate curled up in a ball in the center of the bed.

"Can I trade beds with you?" Heidi asked the curly-haired girl who was now sitting on the bed on one of the ends of the semi-circle, closest to the bathroom. The girl, who was called Caroline Purvis, raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"I get up a lot in the middle of the night to use the loo, so it would be nice to not have to walk the whole room in the dark." Heidi's bed was the one next to Gardenia's on the opposite side of where the bathroom was.

Caroline didn't look too pleased but agreed, and they moved their trunks. Heidi gave her a hug as a thank you, and Caroline stiffened, patting her back twice and sporting what can only be described as a grimace.

As they settled for the night and made small talk, the other girl that shared their dorm, Maxine O'Flaherty, started to organize a bag of cosmetics on her bedside table, the bag being small, but the number of items being pulled out could only mean it had an extendable charm on it. "Where did you get that bag?"

Maxine's eyes brightened, and she answered excitedly. "I got it in Paris, my mother took me there for Fashion Week this year, it's a Chanel necessaire."

"Did you put an extendable charm on it, then?" Gardenia inquired, such charms were heavily controlled, and usually only certified shops could sell them. Gardenia hadn't found one in Diagon Alley that sold small bags like that, only trunks and tents.

"My father did, I loved it so much but it could barely fit my hair products," Maxine explained, she then frowned. "He told me not to tell anyone though, it's illegal or something? Pretend I never said anything." Maxine looked nervous, the girl obviously wasn't used to being secretive at all, and Gardenia felt bad about indirectly making her fess up, so she patted her hand and reassured her it wouldn't leave the dorm room.

"Wait, those are only hair products? It looks like you have a whole store's worth of it there." Heidi exclaimed.

"My hair is my best feature, I need to take good care of it." Maxine flipped her glossy black hair over her shoulder, and Heidi looked horrified.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

The prospect of her first day of classes was incredibly exciting. Gardenia was not someone that was particularly enthused over school when it came to tests and scores, she didn't really care about those things. What she did like was learning new things, especially ones that interested her, and to a reincarnated soul like her, magic was the ultimate wonder.

Professor Sprout handed them their schedules over breakfast, and not even the double potions on a Friday wiped the grin off her face.

"I've never seen someone look so happy over receiving a class schedule," Heidi commented, before glancing over at the Ravenclaw table. "Or at least, someone that wasn't one of them."

"I'm excited to learn about magic! Aren't you?"

Heidi shrugged. "I guess, but classes are usually boring. I am looking forward to the flying classes though, I'm going to ace them!"

Gardenia smiled, that seemed on-brand for what she had seen of Heidi so far. Annabel, who was sitting next to her and munching on some toast, was looking at their interaction quietly. "What about you, Annabel?"

She looked like a deer in headlights at being asked a question, and swallowed her toast quickly, choking a bit on it and triggering a coffing fit. Gardenia patted her on the back and handed her a glass of water.

"Hm, I'm excited," she said after getting better. "It's all so new to me though, I don't even know what we'll be learning in some of these classes."

That was the perfect opportunity for Heidi to explain to Annabel everything she knew about their curriculum, she might've not been overly excited at the prospect of learning it, but she sure was about explaining it. Gardenia pitched in now and then, mostly when Heidi didn't have a very clear explanation about the topic, and that continued until they reached their first class of the day, Transfiguration with Gryffindors.

They were relatively early to the class, which meant barely any people were inside, and the two familiar redheads Gardenia was hoping to sit next to were absent. What was present in the room, however, was a tabby cat sitting upon the table, and she smiled knowingly at it, receiving what she swore was an eyebrow raise from the feline.

Students started to arrive, Gardenia had ended up choosing a seat next to Heidi, who had Annabel on her other side.

Only one minute before class was scheduled to begin did Fred and George arrive, slightly out of breath and with wide grins on their faces. Even if Gardenia didn't know their tells of when they did cause trouble, it was obvious that they had just pulled a stunt somewhere.

They sat down at the back of the class, George caught Gardenia's gaze on them and winked at her.

Not one minute after the clock marked the start of class, and the students began wondering were their Professor could be, after all, the witch had made an impression of being rigorous, and being late did not match that, did the tabby cat leap from the table. Transforming back from her Animagus form, Professor McGonagall appeared, causing gasps and exclamations from her students.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back," McGonagall looked pointedly at the back of the room, and Gardenia could tell she made eye contact with her two favorite gingers. "You have been warned."

The lecture that followed gave Gardenia a headache, who would've guessed there was a mathematical formula for Transfiguration? It was purely theoretical, but it existed. The most impressive part of the class, not counting McGonagall's Animagus form at the start, was her transforming her desk into a pig, which did nothing other than awe the students, but considering how boring notetaking in that first day was, McGonagall probably did that to entice them, just so interest could be kept in the subject, thanks to the promise of great feats in the future.

The first task of turning a match into a needle was met with failure all around, but Professor McGonagall told them that was normal, and not a reason for becoming unmotivated.

Gardenia tried taking that to heart, but couldn't stop the small feeling of disappointment that bloomed.

Next was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Gardenia was curious to see who would be teaching it.

It was unfortunate no one seemed to be able to hold down the position for more than a year, and she wondered if it really was cursed by Tom Riddle, or if that was just a coincidence. It seemed to have happened too much for it not to be caused by a curse, and if that was the case, maybe there was a way to reverse it?

It would be nice to have someone hold down the position for once, and that might prevent Umbridge from ever taking up the position, a prospect that was very appealing.

She decided to look into it, maybe they could keep Remus as a professor permanently?

Entering the classroom, which they would be sharing with the Slytherins for this class, Gardenia saw Celeste already seated and went to talk to her.

"Slytherin, eh?"

Celeste looked up at hearing Gardenia. "Yes, the hat takes your opinion into consideration, thankfully."

Gardenia wondered where the Sorting Hat might've wanted to sort Celeste into, but it didn't matter now.

"I'm glad you're where you wanted to be." Celeste smiled and asked if she wanted to sit with her.

"My brother has his own friends, and I don't want to cling to him during every class."

Gardenia nodded and sat down, pulling out her book, and waited while talking to Celeste about their experiences so far. It didn't take long for everyone to arrive, and soon the only person missing was the Professor. Maybe he was already in the classroom like McGonagall had been, and was waiting to surprise them?

He wasn't, for a ragged looking man entered the classroom a few minutes later, looking out of breath. He looked relatively young, probably in his late twenties, his hair was long, reaching his shoulder blades, and tied in a ponytail that was so messy it looked like he went for a broom ride in a tornado. His clothes were disheveled like he hurriedly put them on, and one of the sleeves of his shirt was ripped.

"Oh, students! Is it time for class already?"

Everyone looked around confused, was this man really their Professor? He looked like a hobo, and a very scatter-brained one at that.

"What year are you lot in?"

No one answered right away, being too shocked to manage cognitive speech. "First year, sir," a Slytherin boy sat at the from of the class answered, having recovered before the rest of the class. "Aren't you supposed to know this?"

"Yes, yes, but it's the first day of classes, and Silvanus needed my assistance with containing a nasty Chimaera he brought for the fifth year's lesson," he was ruffling through the papers on his desk, searching for something. "Aha! Here it is, lesson plan for First year," he turned the paper around to show the class, a proud smile of his face.

It seemed Dumbledore had run out of qualified people to teach this class if this was who he was hiring.

"Let's begin, shall we? My name is Calvin Lawson, but call me Cal, or I'll give you detention," he smiled, but Gardenia had a feeling it wasn't a joke. "Professor Cal will do just fine, my last name doesn't suit me, so I forget about it sometimes and don't tend to answer to it."

Gardenia and Celeste looked at each other at that moment, eyebrows raised. They weren't going to learn anything useful this year, were they?

"Now, how about we start with some fun stuff? Defense Against the Dark Arts is a very specific name for a class, isn't it?" Professor Cal started, walking around the room. "In reality, it could be called just Defense, because not everything you'll be learning is specific to counter a dark spell or dark creature," he twirled his wand in his hand, before turning toward a Hufflepuff student in the back of the class. "If you wanted to blind someone, what spell would you use?"

Anthony, who seemed rather like a confident boy, was at a loss for words. "I don't know, a blinding curse, I guess?"

"You could, but that would be a very specific spell, and as you said, a curse," Professor Cal started walking again. "I myself would use a Lumos Maxima, which if pointed at someone's face directly, can cause temporary lack of slight, or perhaps an Avis, summoning a flock of birds and directing it to pick out my enemy's eyes."

The class looked taken aback, but the man was starting to gain their attention in a good way, and Gardenia herself was becoming very interested.

"My point is, you'll not always be in need to defend yourself from obscure dark magic, like the name of this class eludes to. You need to learn how to respond to attacks of various natures, be it a jinx in an altercation with another student, or a well done Expelliarmus in the middle of a life or death duel. I will be teaching you how to do that, and also, to use spells in ways you wouldn't have ever thought of before to defend yourselves."

Gardenia smiled, she liked his way of thinking. That could actually help her immensely, there would be the day where she would be facing situations that required her to be able to fight, and his approach seemed like a very clever way to do so.

"We'll first be learning about the famous Knockback Jinx, which can knock your target backward. First we'll look at the theory of it, and at the end of class, I want each of you to practice it on a dummy at least once."

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

As they made their way out of the DADA classroom and headed toward the Great Hall for lunch, excited chatter could be heard from almost every single one of them.

"I can't believe I know how to do a jinx! And a cool one too," Heidi said gleefully. "Now I can throw it at anyone who talks crap about our House, and finally get Hufflepuff the reputation it deserves!"

"Please don't start throwing jinxes at people, you'll lose House points!" Caroline exclaimed, looking mortified.

"And you'll get detention," Gardenia added.

"But people need to stop calling us duffers."

"And you want them to call us short-tempered buffoons instead?" Caroline inquired indignantly.

"No! I just want to show we have a backbone."

Gardenia agreed with Heidi's want of changing the way others viewed their House, but violence wasn't the way to go.

As they arrived at the entrance to the Great Hall, Gardenia spotted two identical red-haired boys coming down the steps toward them, and told everyone to go without her, she would join them in a moment.

Gardenia waited for Fred and George at the end of the stairs, and when they saw her, they waved and rushed to get to her.

"So, what did you two do?"

Fred, and she was sure that is was Fred because of the way he smiled, put a hand over his heart in mock offense. "Are you accusing us of something, my dear badger?"

"Is that any way to greet your two life long friends after a whole day of establishment mandated separation?" George put an arm over her shoulders, a look of pretend hurt on his face.

Gardenia chuckled. "Hello Fred, hello George, how are you guys enjoying life as Gryffindors?"

Fred smiled. "Now that's more like it. We're enjoying it just fine, but are a little sad over not being able to enjoy it with our best friend."

Aw, that was sweet. "I'm sorry you guys, it seems I'm just not brave enough to be a lion," she shrugged, and George squeezed her in a side hug.

"And we're not nice enough to be badgers, apparently."

She frowned, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I tried convincing the Sorting Hat to place me in Hufflepuff, but it was very annoyingly telling me I wouldn't do well in it, no matter how much I argued with it," Fred explained.

"And when it came to me, I think the hat had quite enough already of our antics because it was a very rude piece of clothing."

Gardenia was shocked, they tried to get the Sorting Hat to place them in Hufflepuff?

"Why would you do that? You've always said Gryffindor was the best House."

Fred shrugged. "It is, but you're not in it, and we wanted to at least try to be in the same House as you."

Gardenia looked at them with wide eyes, and she could feel tears gathering in it. "Don't cry, Nia! Look what you did Forge, you made her cry," George mockingly scolded.

"It looks like little Garden can't handle demonstrations of affection very well."

"Oh no, what should we do about that?"

"How about we demonstrate our affections publicly?"

They both hugged her, one of each side, and Gardenia laughed.

"I'm happy to hear you wanted to be in the same House as me, but Gryffindor is where you belong."

"Eh, you're not wrong," They started making their way into the Great Hall, one twin on each side of her. "But don't think that means you'll be getting rid of us."

George nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, you're stuck with us for life, no way around it."

"Damn, are you sure about those terms?" Gardenia inquired, trying to keep a smile off her face.

"Yep."

"Our friendship is non-refundable—"

"And non-returnable."

And she wouldn't have it any other way.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Her first Potions class was on a Friday morning, and Gardenia headed down to the dungeons with all the excitement that seemed to be missing from the rest of her classmates. The rumors about Snape's sour attitude were quickly spread, and all the first years with an older magical sibling had been told about the mean Potions master.

Gardenia was well aware he favored those in his House, but knowing so much about him, his past, most of his motivations, and some of his worst actions, even those that had yet to happen, made him seem less intimidating than he was to her peers. You were less likely to be afraid of something when you knew what lay behind the facade presented to the world.

The dungeons were dark and musty, and Gardenia was glad she hadn't been sorted into Slytherin, if only for the location. She sat down next to Annabel, and as the room filled with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, Gardenia became genuinely curious about how much of Snape's attitude was exacerbated by Harry's presence, and if he was more chill when if came to teaching the two more neutral Houses.

The answer to that was a solid no.

He made a fairly dramatic entrance into the classroom, dark robes flowing around him as he moved, and stared down at the group of eleven-year-olds sitting down in front of him with a very dour expression. Gardenia was disappointed to see he looked nothing like Alan Rickman, firstly by being much younger than the actor was in the movies, and secondly by being way less pleasing to look at. His hair really was greasy, would he be awfully offended if someone gave him a shampoo for Christmas? Probably, so she scratched that idea as soon as it formed itself.

Maybe she'd bring it up to Fred and George, they would use it to prank him, but maybe Snape would be tempted to actually use it.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. Damn it, his voice wasn't like Alan's either, Gardenia was hoping for that at least, it would make listening to his lectures way nicer. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Something told her that had Snape been born a muggle, he would be a theater kid. He certainly had a flair for the dramatic and was moody enough to fit the role of one.

He didn't have a random pop quiz for any students though, so Gardenia suspected that was specifically to antagonize Harry.

"Form pairs, today you will be preparing one of the most simple concoctions in your textbook, if you can't manage to do it properly with the assistance of a peer no less, then you can be sure that you'll fare no better in any of the following potions."

Well, that was one way of scaring students out of enjoying the class.

Gardenia paired up with Annabel, and the two began preparing the potion to cure boils. Gardenia had already read through the first-year textbook on potions, but she still used it as a guide, she wanted to take no chances in screwing this up. Potions was something with the potential for her to actually enjoy, and not being on Snape's bad side was the first step towards that.

"I'll gather the ingredients, you read through it first to familiarize yourself with the process," Gardenia instructed Annabel, who seemed relieved that the blonde was taking control of the situation.

Gardenia went to the cabinet with the ingredients, letting the most of the students make their way there first, lest she is trampled by eager Ravenclaws. After gathering everything they would need, Gardenia returned to find Annabel reading with a concentrated look on her face. It seemed she wasn't the only one who wanted to avoid being on Snape's bad side.

She started measuring everything on the side while Annabel finished reading, looking over the instructions one more time. "You can crush these six snake fangs into a fine powder, while I slice the Pungous Onions."

Being used to cooking, it was easy to slice the onions finely as the book requested, but Gardenia didn't go overboard and make them too thin. She had thought about this from the first time she read a potions book, that the instructions on the textbook weren't exactly precise, and she knew that Snape himself had made various corrections to various potions during his years as a student, which meant they weren't necessarily the best way to do things, just the easiest for learning.

One had to think of the property of the ingredient, and which way it would best suit the potion. The onions, for example, it was the irritating gas that they expelled when cut that was important in the Boils Cure, because it reacted with water to create an acid, the same one that when in contact with the eyes made them burn. The acid was what the potion actually required, but the addition of onions was the best way to produce it.

Cutting the slices finely would result in less gas, which might be good when considering it was being done by children, but that severely diminished the acid generated, and in turn, the quality of the potion suffered.

So Gardenia made the executive decision to do it the way she thought it would best suit the potion, and chopped it like she would for a dish of steak with onions.

Making small modifications along the way, and writing down everything she did to compare it later, Gardenia led Annabel along with her, who seemed to have no problem in adjusting, mostly because she trusted the witch raised in a magical environment to know what she was doing.

There was only one ingredient missing for it to be complete, the porcupine quills, and Gardenia stopped Annabel before she could add them. "We need to take the cauldron off the fire first, otherwise it will cause the potion to melt the cauldron, and create a mess."

The book only had an asterisk next to the step saying to add the porcupine quills to alert of the paragraph on the bottom of the page, where it was explained that the cauldron needed to be taken out of the fire before the addition of the ingredient, which was ridiculous, it should be in big bold letters right at the top, considering the catastrophic consequences of messing it up. Whoever wrote these books was an idiot, she wouldn't be surprised if the author was a relative of Lockhart.

It seemed most of the other first-years caught the little asterisk, but two of her fellow Hufflepuffs did not, and soon their potion was all over their table and dripping to the floor.

"Dunderheads, the two of you!" Snape sneered, making them pale and look embarrassed. He vanished the potion and told them to head to the Hospital Wing since it had spilled on them and red angry boils were appearing in their arms and hands.

Gardenia felt sorry for them, Herbert was the same kid that had joined her and the twins on the boat, and he was already a scaredy-cat, Snape being mean to him didn't help. Malcolm, the other boy, glared at Snape as they were leaving, keeping a hand on Herbert's shoulder in reassurance.

The Potions Master made an enemy that day, she was sure of it.

As class neared its end, their potion had acquired a blue color and was emitting pink smoke, just the way it was supposed to.

Snape made rounds around the classroom, making snarky remarks about most, and even insulting a Ravenclaw by questioning their house placement if they couldn't even read instructions properly(who was this mean to kids? Damn but Snape made it hard to sympathize with him). As he approached their table, he stared at the potion, then at her and Annabel. "At least some of you badgers managed not to make fool of yourselves."

Was that supposed to be a compliment? Because if yes, he needed to practice doing that so it didn't double as an insult.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Studying in the library with some of her fellow fist years had become routine, Gardenia liked the atmosphere as Madam Pince made sure any troublemakers were thrown out, but unfortunately, that meat neither Fred nor George particularly liked the place. In the first few days they tried to join her but quickly gave up, preferring to catch up on their work in Gryffindor's common room, usually the day before the due date. That didn't suit Gardenia, so while she wasn't about to force them to do the same as her, she still frequented the library almost daily. She wanted to have a very good base when it came to her first-year subjects because if she started strong, she could more easily keep up when things became harder, and being good at magic was a necessary skill if she wanted to accomplish all she had planned.

Out of her housemates, Annabel and Caroline were definitely the most studious, but the latter had an aversion to Heidi, finding her way too loud for her tastes, and since Gardenia had gotten on well with the tomboyish girl, it was an unspoken thing that Caroline also didn't like Gardenia, if only for enabling Heidi. That left Annabel, who Gardenia had roped into having study sessions with her and Heidi, the calm manner of the muggleborn being a great help in reining in the more rambunctious badger.

"See you tomorrow Fawley." Looking up at hearing her name, Gardenia saw that it wasn't directed at her, but at a dark-haired boy sitting on a table not far from where she was.

That sparked a bulb in her mind, for there was only one other person that could possibly be named Fawley and was also attending Hogwarts at the moment. Excusing herself, she left her friends and went toward the table where the boy was sitting, stopping in front of him.

He didn't look up, in fact, it looked like he was purposely ignoring her, so Gardenia decided to initiate the conversation.

"Excuse me, is your last name Fawley?"

The boy sighed, not looking up from his textbook. "Yes, not that is any of your business firstie."

Gardenia furrowed her brows, who pissed in his coffee that morning?

"I think it is my business, since we're cousins." That got him to look up from his book, and lock eyes with her, two identical shades of hazel meeting. "Gardenia Fawley, pleased to finally meet you."

She extended her hand, a bright smile on her face, but the boy's face turned from a brief recognition to a frown, one that made her smile dim.

"Sawyer Fawley, not pleased to met you." He closed his book, staring at her with what she could only describe as contempt. "In fact, I'd appreciate it if you left, I know you badgers are all about the feel-good times, but some people like to actually study and get ahead in life." Gardenia's eyes had widened and her jaw dropped slightly, being very caught off guard by this reaction.

Sawyer made a shooing motion with his hands, and Gardenia scoffed. She turned around and went back to her table.

Her father didn't talk about his brother, it was a sore spot for him, but he had let it slip once that she had a cousin. Gardenia didn't even know his name before this, only that he was a year her older than her.

She had always wanted a sibling, someone to be there through thick and thin, that no matter how much you had petty squabbles with, at the end of the day, they were there for you. A cousin was no sibling, but it was the next best thing. Gardenia thought that maybe he would've wanted to get to know her, even if their parents weren't on speaking terms, but going by his attitude, the last thing Sawyer wanted to do was talk to her.

Sighing in defeat, she sat back at her own table, where Annabel and Heidi were looking at her with mirroring worried looks.

"What was that about?"

"That was my cousin."

Heidi frowned, looking at Gardenia with a questioning gaze. "Did you set his hair on fire at any point in your life?"

Chuckling, Gardenia shook her head. "No, our fathers aren't on speaking terms, so I never met him before, and apparently whatever grudge my uncle has passed down to him."

Annabel looked sympathetic, giving her a small smile. "I get that, my aunt left home to pursue her dream of acting and my grandmother stopped speaking to her." That being the first time the muggleborn had ever volunteered any information about herself, neither Heidi nor Gardenia wanted to stop her. "My mother took my grandma's side, and even I didn't have a good opinion of my aunt."

Noticing the attentive looks she was being given, Annabel blushed. "I ramble sometimes, sorry."

The other two girls shook their heads vehemently, and Gardenia put a hand on one her arms. "No, don't apologize. I'm actually curious, what happened? Did they talk with her again?"

"Well, no, she committed suicide in Hollywood and we heard about in the news." That made Gardenia's eyes widen, and Heidi's jaw drop. "Oh, I'm sorry, I know it's depressing. My point is that both me and my mother only had grudges because of my grandmother, so don't take your cousin's rudeness personally, it's just his father's being projected."

Smiling at Annabel's try at consoling her, Gardenia nodded. "I know, it's just hard to do that when you're trying to be friendly and in response, you get a backhanded comment about your house and are dismissed like you're nothing."

"He insulted Hufflepuff?" Heidi was about to get up and most likely start a fight, which would definitely change some people's minds about their house being filled with pushovers but would not be very smart. Gardenia and Annabel simultaneously each held one of her arms, forcing the girl to sit back down.

"Basically half the school has insulted us at one point or another, you can't fight everyone that does that." Gardenia reasoned.

"I can try."

"I'm not letting you get expelled before you finish at least your fifth year and have some O.W.L.s to speak of."

"That's too long, can I fight at least one person before then?"

"Two maximum, and only after first year."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this story had reached 100 kudos, thank you so much!
> 
> And thank you for all the comments as well, I don't respond to every single one(mostly bc my awkward self doesn't know how to for the more brief ones), but I appreciate every single one of them, and it really makes my day <3
> 
> In an unrelated note, I was considering finding a beta for this story, but my only experience with one was on a portuguese fanfiction site in my earlier days before ffn, so I have no clue how to go about getting one, the beta section of ffn was too confusing for me, so if anyone has any tips as to how I should go about it, please let me know!


	8. Chapter 8

Even since she had realized the world she was living in, there had been this dream in the back of her mind, of becoming great at everything magic, and where Transfiguration was concerned, becoming an Animagus. But the truth of it was, and it hit Gardenia right in the middle of her first class on that fated first day in Hogwarts, that she was human, and bound to have things she simply wasn't good at.

She had never been great at Physics before, she was okay with the formulas, but the theory behind them? Might as well be speaking Greek. So it wasn't that big of a stretch that Transfiguration, one of the most complex subjects there was, was not turning out to be easy.

Feeling frustrated, Gardenia reasoned with herself that she could improve, get better, and eventually so skilled that becoming an Animagus would be easy as cake.

It took only looking at her textbook and the ridiculous formula in it(what was the point of one if you weren't going to use it?), for her to groan and put her head on her hands.

She took a deep breath, composing herself. Annabel was glancing at her worriedly, so Gardenia smiled at her and went back to trying to turn that damn match into a needle.

Maybe she would've been an animal like a sloth, unable to truly be of use in anything she would have to do in the foreseeable future. Being bad at Transfiguration might've simply been the universe sparing her years of hard work, a whole month of keeping a freaking leaf under her tongue, and possibly maiming herself, just to end up being a goddamn turtle.

Or she just cheated herself out of being able to fly without a broom.

She would never know if the way the match became silver and nothing else by the end of class was any indication.

"Professor McGonagall? May I speak with you for a moment, please?"

Being approached by one of the most lackluster students she had at the moment, McGonagall probably was not too pleased with seeing Gardenia.

"Do you need something, Miss Fawley?"

Gardenia fidgeted a bit, not looking directly at the older witch. "I was wondering if there is any possibility of receiving tutoring for Transfiguration?"

McGonagall stayed silent for a few moments, and Gardenia glanced at her face. It was unreadable, which did not help her nerves.

"I usually have to approach students about tutoring, not the other way around." McGonagall sounded surprised, or at least, that is what it seemed to Gardenia. "Of course there is the possibility, but it's just the first month of class, you needn't rush into getting a tutor yet."

"I know it's still early in the year, but if I'm being frank with you Professor, I'm at a loss when it comes to Transfiguration," Gardenia didn't like admitting it, but it was true. "And it's frustrating because I find the subject fascinating! But I have a hard time getting the theory of it, and when I try to put it into practice," Gardner shrugged. "Well, you've seen what happens, or rather, what doesn't."

McGonagall looked at her with a calculating gaze, almost as if she was wondering if this was a prank Gardenia had been roped into by the Weasley twins. But the woman gave her what could be said to be a smile or at least a ghost of it, and nodded.

"Very well, I will see if any of the accomplished second years in my class are available for tutoring." Gardenia smiled brightly, excitement clear in her face. "I will let you know about possible dates and times."

Gardenia nodded and had to hold herself from hugging her Professor, for she doubted it would be appreciated. Thanking McGonagall profusely, she left the classroom with a bounce in her step.

Hopefully, she would stop sucking at Transfiguration, and who knows, maybe in time, she could be good enough to try and become an Animagus.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Fred and George were up to something. Gardenia didn't even have to look twice at them to know that, and her first indication was that they were being way too quiet.

They were currently attending a History of Magic class, a period after lunch designed to serve as nap time. Heidi sat to her left, head resting on her arms in a way she was sure was cutting off circulation, but the girl was so deeply asleep that nothing short of her hair catching on fire would wake her. Fred who was currently sitting on her left and George who sat by his side, on the other hand, were wide awake, a most unusual thing since they weren't drawing on unsuspecting students' faces either.

"You two are remarkably well behaved today," Gardenia commented suspiciously. "What did you do?"

"We're always well behaved," Fred responded, turning to look at Gardenia.

"Your mother would disagree."

"We haven't done anything yet," George admitted.

"But you're planning to," she added.

The two redheads looked at each other conspiratorially, and then at her, smirking and pulling her closer. She was sure it all looked very suspicious to anyone watching, if anyone other than the ghost teaching them were awake.

"So, this weekend is the first Hogsmead trip of the year," Fred began, stage whispering. "And that means, certain items can be acquired via older students."

The way he was talking made it sound like he meant drugs, but it was actually just things to prank people with.

"We are trying to find an older student to smuggle some goods to us," George continued.

"Have you tried asking one of your brothers?"

The twins shook their heads. "Percy would never aid us in troublemaking—"

"And Charlie is mad at us for cutting his hair while he slept."

Gardenia though for a bit, Charlie would've been their best bet, he was usually amused by the stunts they pulled, but she doubts he'll get over the hair thing without at least getting them back, either with a prank of his own, or getting them into trouble.

"I can ask Dora to bring me something, just tell me what you want."

They both smiled at her, and she got a paper with a long list of items written on it.

Two days later, after Nymphadora had returned with a bag from Zonko's, and Gardenia had delivered them to the boys with one of the Hogwart's owls, she got pulled from the Hufflepuff table to join the twins in whatever they had planned.

"I don't really want to be involved."

"You're already our accomplice," Fred reasoned.

"I'm more of your dealer at the moment, actively joining you in pranking would make me an accomplice."

"Eh, either way, you're guilty."

She shrugged and went along with it. The worse that could happen was detention, and she was curious to see what the twins were up to.

They had a few Dungbombs hidden in their robes, and after handing one to Gardenia, they made their way through the castle, stopping behind two suits of armor located in a corridor on the fifth floor, where they had a clear view of the entrance to the prefect's bathroom.

They waited for a few minutes, and when two boys dressed in Slytherin robes came out of the bathroom, freshly bathed and probably smelling like flowers, Fred muttered a Wingardium Leviosa on one of his Dungbombs, and quietly levitated it high enough to not be seen, toward the two boys, and the dropped the spell.

The screams were heard instantly, and Fred and George each grabbed one of her arms and started to run away from the crime scene, uncontrollable laughter spewing from the three of them as they got further away.

"That was hilarious," Gardenia said after recuperating her breath. "What should we do with the rest of these babies?"

"We were thinking of—"

"Stop right there you troublemakers!" A shrieking voice was heard from the end of the corridor, and quickly turning around gave them the view of Argus Filch trying his best to run.

Not thinking twice, they started to run again, but they still weren't very familiar with the castle's halls and ended up reaching a dead end.

"I've got you, miscreants, now," Filch said, pulling George and Gardenia by their robes, a glare making Fred tag along as he led them to his office.

Gardenia was not overly anxious about being caught, by Filch no loss, she had expected this at least once during her Hogwarts years, it was just being sooner rather than later. Neither Fred nor George seemed too worried either, they were probably just wondering what their mother's reaction would be once she heard, which she would, and how bad of a Howler they would get.

She might've been worried if this was their seventh year and they were under Umbridge because then Filch might be allowed to go through with some of the awful punishments he kept muttering under his breath, but at this moment, she knew not to be worried about being tortured by a frustrated old man.

Filch practically shoved them inside his office, making them sit down on the chairs in front of his desk. Gardenia scrunched her nose at the sight of the room, it barely passed as an office, it looked more like an old deposit with a table and few chairs. There were various stacks of papers, a few furballs, and some quilts scattered through the place, and a horrible smell was present. Various filing cabinets stood behind the desk, some of the drawers overflowing with things, and she swore she saw whips and chains in one of them. They were labeled, and that specific one was ' _Discipline Tools_ '.

"Would you mind telling us what we're doing here?" Fred decided to ask.

"The three of us were just minding our business, really, this could be considered abuse of power," George added.

"Quiet!" Filch sneered. "I caught you in the act, throwing Dungbombs around!"

He started looking through the stacks of paper, and Gardenia saw that Fred had also taken notice of the filing cabinets, but his eyes were glued to one labeled ' _Confiscated and Highly Dangerous_ '. He had a grin of his face, and when he saw Gardenia had noticed where his attention had been, he wiggled his eyebrows and glanced at it. Gardenia sighed, and poked George on the side, getting his attention. Once George realized what his twin wanted to do, he grinned, getting one of the Dungbombs he still had and aimed it at Mrs. Norris.

The cat screeched like a banshee, jumped on Filch, scratching his face, and then ran out of the office. Gardenia felt a little bad for the cat, but then remembered it was a mean little thing, always snitching on students and being an all-around nightmare. Even then, it still didn't sit well with her to throw a Dungbombs at the feline, but what was done is done.

Filch looked panicked as he yelled and ran after his cat, and as soon as the caretaker left the room, Fred jumped from his chair and opened the drawer, quickly snatching a few things. The three of them wasted no time in leaving the office, which was now even more foul-smelling thanks to George, and running as if their life depended on it, not stopping until they reached the seventh floor, where they quickly entered an empty classroom.

Gardenia sat down to recuperate, while Fred put his spoils on one of the tables. Gardenia was surprised to find that it was just one item. George seemed just as impressed with his brother's loot as she was.

"Blank parchment, " he said, with all the excitement of someone watching paint dry. "What a highly dangerous object."

"If Filch put blank parchment together with an assortment of dangerous items, it can't really be blank, can it?" Fred argued.

"Filch could be losing his marbles, and just misplaced it," Gardenia suggested.

"How about we try and see if it's enchanted before we dismiss it?" Fred said, getting his wand out and tapping the object. "Aparecium!"

Much to their pleasure, words did appear on the parchment, but not exactly what they were expecting.

_Mr. Moony would like to inform you that such simple spells will not reveal any secrets._

_Mr. Prongs expresses his amusement over such a pathetic attempt to discover what this object hides._

_Mr. Padfoot concurs with Mr. Prongs and advises that you cease trying to find anything._

_Mr. Wormtail requests you put this back where you found it._

Gardenia felt like an idiot, from the moment she saw the black piece of parchment, she should've guessed. Right in front of her was the Marauder's Map in all it's glory.

"It's not just a parchment after all," George smirked, leaning in to inspect it.

"What do you think it's hiding?" Gardenia asked, she knew precisely what that parchment was, and how to reveal its contents, but she was curious to see what Fred and George made of it, and how exactly they would go about it.

"Something that we're going to find out," Fred said grinning. "We know a revealing spell won't work, so let's try something different."

He tapped the parchment again. "I, Fred Weasley, ask that you reveal your secrets."

_Mr. Prongs is astonished Mr. Weasley forgot the magic word when asking for something._

_Mr. Padfoot is sorely disappointed in Mr. Weasley's lack of good manners._

_Mr. Wormtail thinks your mother must have instructed you to be polite._

"Reveal your secrets, please?"

_Mr. Moony is incredulous you would fall for such a trick._

_Mr. Prongs concurs with Mr. Moony, and is of the opinion you must be lacking in intelligence._

_Mr. Padfoot is beside himself with amusement that such a daft individual came across this object._

Gardenia and George laughed, and Fred looked astonished. "You should've seen that coming, Freddie," his fellow twin said, taking the parchment from him and attempting something himself. "I, the more handsome of us two, request you tell us how to unlock your mysteries."

_Mr. Moony would like to point out that you look identical and as such, equal in looks._

_Mr. Prongs is partial to gingers but admits you are not his type._

_Mr. Padfoot would like to add that no one is as handsome as he._

_Mr. Wormtail informs that without the password, your efforts will be for naught._

"There's a password! I should've thought about that!" Fred exclaimed.

"How about we brainstorm a little before trying to guess? I doubt it would actually tell us what it is," Gardenia was tempted to steer them in the right direction, but without them knowing about her Divination "skills", there would be no explanation for how she knew.

George had a thoughtful look on his face, and Fred started pacing around the room. After a while, They both sat down on the floor, parchment in being passed between them as they tried to guess, and Gardenia joined them, sitting with her back propped against George's back.

They began with words, all the Hogwarts Houses names, then a truly extensive list of sweets, and by the time they reached random words, Gardenia was full of it and decided that she could give them at least a little nudge.

She took the parchment and tapped it with her wand. "Could you perhaps give us a clue?"

_Mr. Moony confesses that the password is not a word, but a phrase._

_Mr. Prongs is glad that at least one of you has brains and stopped the torrent of random words._

_Mr. Padfoot would like to compliment the holder's appearance and asks if she would be agreeable to having a butterbeer with him._

_Mr. Wormtail apologizes for Mr. Padfoot's incorrigible ways and adds that should you aspire to break the rules._

"Why are they nice to you?" Fred pouted, making her laugh.

"So, it's a phrase, and we should aspire to break the rules," George mumbled. "Do you think the part about butterbeer means something too?"

"Other than flirting?" Fred asked. "No."

Feeling bold, George took the parchment and attempted again. "We're going to break the rules."

Nothing appeared, but now that they knew what path to follow, the twins became very creative. Gardenia was impressed with how many variations of breaking the rules they came up with, and she also added some in. Soon they got the hint that they should be promising something. The Marauders were slightly helpful, nudging them in the right direction.

Almost an hour had passed, and the afternoon was starting to become evening when they made a breakthrough. "How about we try swearing?" Fred suggested. "We're running out of things to say, and that's something we haven't tried before."

George thought for a second, before grinning. "I promise I'm going to fuck shit up."

 _Mr. Moony inquires as to why_ _Messrs._ _Weasley thinks such foul language is necessary to accomplish mischief._

_Mr. Wormtail would like to inform Messrs. Weasley that they are getting warmer._

_Mr. Padfoot would like to high five Messrs. Weasley._

_Mr. Prongs would like to have a pint with Messrs. Weasley as they seem like just his kind of people. As long as they solemnly swear it._

"Well, that might've not worked, but at least we also got asked out."

"It gave us loads of clues though," George said. "How about 'I solemnly swear to accomplish mischief?"

Gardenia knew them to be so close, she was half tempted to just say it, but she wanted them to have the satisfaction of figuring it out. When the map still didn't reveal anything, George groaned, running his fingers through his hair in frustration, and passed the parchment to her.

"I solemnly swear to be up to no good," she said, not hitting the exact words, but that was the point. The map responded, ink appearing and disappearing very quickly, but this time, it wasn't the banter of the Marauders.

"I think I've got it," Fred smiled and asked her to pass the parchment to him. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers_

_are proud to present_

_THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

They all cheered, excited to have finally managed to get it right, even if it did take a whole afternoon of trial and error. Gardenia had a feeling that it might've taken them a bit longer had she not been previously aware of the password, and gently steered them in the right direction, but she could care less about that, she simply saved them time.

"It's a map of Hogwarts!" Fred exclaimed, eyes shining as he took in the view in front of him.

"This is bloody brilliant," George was looking at it with awe. "It has every single corner of the castle, it's our dream come true."

Gardenia, now sitting in between the twins, leaned to take a closer look at the map, and truthfully, it was a work of art. She couldn't begin to imagine how long it took to map the entirety of the castle, and not to mention how advanced the charm to keep track of every single person in Hogwarts was. To think the Marauders managed that before even graduating, she was impressed.

Maybe she could get Sirius and Remus to tell her how they did it, or perhaps how to duplicate it, Harry would need the map in the future, and it would be nice to be able to still have one for herself.

"Are these moving dots what I think they are?" George asked incredulously.

"I think they are Georgie," Fred replied, eyes wide. "It's tracking everyone in the castle."

They looked at where they currently were, an unused classroom on the seventh floor, and saw their names. Gardenia could see Dumbledore in his office, the little footprints going from one end of the room to the other, and McGonagall, unmoving in her office.

"Look, there is Lee!" Fred pointed at the moving name, going from the Gryffindor common room down the stairs. "Where do you think he's going?"

Gardenia shrugged. "Dinner, probably."

"Dinner?" George did a quick _Tempus_ , showing it was indeed time for the evening meal. "Sweet Merlin, we've been here since after lunch!"

"It was worth it though, look what we have now," Fred said, before frowning. "How do we make the map disappear? If anyone sees this, they could take it from us, and we might get in trouble."

The map gave them the answer, the necessary words appearing on the bottom of the parchment. "Mischief managed."

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

It turned out that even if you run out of Filch's office before he can write a detention slip, his descriptions of the students were enough to get someone detention.

Fred and George were reprimanded by their head of House and would be having detention with her, while Gardenia would do so with her head of House. She didn't envy them at all, Professor Sprout was less harsh when it came to detentions, or at least if you actually liked Herbology.

She supposed to most people, having to weed out plants that sometimes sang or danced, water all of the pots in the greenhouse, and organize them in a way the right ones got more sun, was not enjoyable at all, but to her, having grown up with her mother owning a plant shop, she was quite used to it all. The shop's nursery was in their garden, so Lucy could better take care of all the new buds, and from a young age Gardenia helped her out with it.

Gardenia decided that if she were to get detention again, she must do her best to serve it with Professor Sprout.

"Miss Fawley?"

She stopped turning the flower pot that she was having a hard time placing. Professor Sprout was standing next to her, a warm smile on her face.

"Good job today dear, your prowess in class was testament enough to your talents, but today you've shown me you enjoy it," Gardenia blushed, but smiled appreciatively. "I usually refrain from giving students detentions they might enjoy, but I think I can make an exception for one of my badgers," she winked, Gardenia's smile widening.

"Thank you, Professor," Gardenia was glad to know that she was doing well in at least one of her classes since Transfiguration was a disaster, and Snape would sooner put his hand in boiling water than give an actual compliment to a student that wasn't a Slytherin.

"You're done for today, but Professor McGonagall informed me that you should report to her office about those tutoring lessons after lunch tomorrow."

It seems that McGonagall had found a tutor for her after all, and Gardenia was glad to hear it.

The next day, Gardenia happily made her way to the Transfiguration classroom, where a side door led to McGonagall's office. She knocked on the door, a smile on her face, and opened it after receiving permission. Her smile lasted for only about three seconds after entering the room, because sitting in one of the chairs in front of Professor McGonagall was Sawyer Fawley.

"You've arrived just in time, Miss Fawley," the older witch greeted. "I was just talking with your new tutor, although I don't think introductions are necessary."

Sawyer looked just as pleased as seeing her as she felt, his face was impassive, but she could see the glare in his eyes.

"Mr. Fawley is the most accomplished second year when it comes to Transfiguration, and for extra credits, he has agreed to tutor you in the subject," McGonagall gestured at the other chair in front of her desk, and Gardenia sat down. "Now, let's discuss a suitable time for both of you, either a free period or after classes, I suggest the weekend if you'd be inclined."

"Professor, I'm honored you thought of me for the position, but I'm sure you can find a better person to help her, maybe a fellow Hufflepuff? That would help since they can study in the common room," Sawyer suggested.

McGonagall frowned. "Mere minutes ago you were happy to help a first year improve their Transfiguration skills."

"I was under the impression it'd be a fellow Ravenclaw," Sawyer clearly lied, making Gardenia hold a huff of breath.

"As you can see, it isn't, but I see no problem, not to mention, you're cousins, aren't you?" McGonagall didn't wait for him to answer. "And the library is a perfectly good location for tutoring, the common room has many distractions."

Unless he clearly stated he didn't want to help her because of who she was, and most likely have to suffer though questions about exactly why that was, Sawyer had to accept the cards he was given. He had accepted before knowing who he was tutoring, and now the deal was sealed. Gardenia could protest, saying some rubbish about not wanting to be seen as babied by family, but honestly, she wanted to be taught by the best, and maybe, she could get to the root of her cousin's problem with her though these tutoring sessions.

So she said nothing, just smiled politely and told McGonagall when she was free. Sawyer had already discussed with her about his free time, so they just had to decide a day and time for it. After settling for Wednesday's afternoon, before dinner for ninety minutes, McGonagall gave Gardenia a slip where Sawyer would sing at every session, to be brought to her at the end of the semester.

They were dismissed after that, and both of them left the office, walking for a brief period side by side in silence.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Sawyer broke the silence, his voice angry.

Gardenia was startled. "What? Of course not! Do you think I want to be stuck with a grumpy tutor?" Gardenia did technically refrain from protesting him being her tutor, but he most definitely wouldn't have been her first choice. "I asked Professor McGonagall if I could have tutoring lessons, and she said she would find a second year to tutor me."

Sawyer didn't look convinced, narrowing his eyes at her. "If you think that we're going to be buddies just because I'm tutoring you, think again."

"I just want to get better at Transfiguration, I'm not going to force you into a friendship," Gardenia was baffled by his attitude. She had a secret plan to find out why he seemed to hate her, and if things turned out well, befriend him, but that was not relevant at the moment.

"Don't be late, if you are, I'm leaving and you can tutor yourself."

He didn't bother with a goodbye, simply walked away, leaving Gardenia alone. She wanted to eventually be on good terms with her cousin, but damn it, he was getting on her nerves.

Gardenia would definitely have to prank him at some point.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

There was something about Hufflepuff that endeared Gardenia even more to her House, every first-year got what could be described as an emotional support older student.

It was sorta like a mentoring program, after the first month or so of classes, the prefects introduced the new members of the house to their designated buddy, who had been chosen considering what they observed during the first few weeks of classes.

Gardenia was slightly unnerved to know people had been taking notes on her behavior, but it was for a good cause, so she supposed it was okay.

The whole of the House had a policy of helping each other when needed, but apparently, given how much of a life-changing experience your first year was, a few decades back they had begun to match students so the first years would be less like lost puppies. It also helped considering their House suffered the brunt of it when it came to mean spirited pranks by others, being considered weak made for an enticing target. Prefects were supposed to be guides, but given they only had six of them, they were stretched thin when adding patrols and other responsibilities to the table.

The way they introduced the first years to their respective mentors was with a party in the common room(very child friendly, during the day and only butterbeer and pumpkin juice) during the first weekend of October. They told the first years about the program a week before, mostly to curb the nervousness, and ever since she'd heard, Gardenia had been counting down the days.

They also had given them a little form, where they could note down their general likes and dislikes, to better help match them, but Gardenia ha a feeling they wouldn't be putting people who had all the same interests together.

Heidi was another very excited person, while Annabel was presenting the nervousness they had tried to prevent.

"I hope I get a Quidditch player," Heidi commented as they made their way to breakfast on the first Saturday of the tenth month of the year. "Or better yet, the team captain!"

"I don't think he signed up for the program, he's probably very busy with the team trials and practices," Gardenia said.

"Then co-captain!"

Sitting down on the table, Gardenia made sure to fill her cup with the darkest and strongest coffee she could find, before adding four sugar cubes and half a cup of milk. "That's a crime."

Nymphadora had sat beside her and was looking outraged at her mixture. "Coffee tastes vile, but I need the caffeine," Gardenia replied, using a spoon to mix.

"You're too young for coffee anyways, no wonder you're so tiny, it must've stunted your growth."

Gardenia would take being short over not having coffee, once you got used to it, your morning was never the same without it, and unfortunately for her, that habit had been long acquired, and the early years of this life were already enough of caffeine-deprived mornings. Her mother never let her have coffee, so she settled for taking clandestine sips out of her father's mug, which thankfully, were just as sugar-filled as the ones she made.

"Are you participating in the mentorship program, Dora?"

"Yep, it's mostly Fourth and Sixth years that sign up for it, Second years are not senior enough, Third years have to adjust to a new schedule with elective, and Fifth and Seventh are too busy with O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s," she answered, putting a piece of toast in Gardenia's plate after spreading some butter on it.

Gardenia tried to sneakily give the toast to Heidi, but Nymphadora caught her and narrowed her eyes, a silent order for her to eat.

"Do you know who you're mentoring yet?" Gardenia asked, giving in and eating the buttered toast. Her stomach wasn't happy with food so early, but apparently breakfast was the most important meal of the day and she couldn't only have coffee.

Nymphadora smiled, winking at her. "I do, but it's a surprise for you guys."

Heidi perked up at that. "Do you know who my mentor is? It's it the Quidditch captain? He's a Sixth year, so he can sing up."

"I know who your mentor is, but I'm not telling," Heidi pouted, but the older girl was unaffected. "You'll find out this afternoon, think of this as an exercise of patience."

"Patience is overrated," Heidi said, making Gardenia chuckle.

The common room was decorated with even more plants, along with some banners that were enchanted to say encouraging things, and various balloons around the room changed colors and shapes. There was a table set up along one of the walls, filled with a huge variety of foods and drinks. The mismatched chairs along the room were filled with people, who sat and conversed with one another.

The two seventh year prefects gave everyone name tags, similar to those stickers with ' _Hello my name is_ ', but magical, so they wrote the names with a spell instead of sharpies and glued it to their clothes with a sticking charm.

"Your buddy will find you, so for the time being, enjoy yourselves," one of the prefects said.

Annabel's mentor wasted no time in snatching the girl and taking her to one of the two-seaters, Nymphadora being very excited about her firstie, as she called it. Their match was interesting because Gardenia couldn't name two people more different than those two. But she supposed that Annabel being under the wing of someone so extroverted might help her get out of her shell a bit more, or at least, become more comfortable with everything magic.

Heidi was matched up with Chiara Lobusca, a Sixth year who had a very calm demeanor, and to the young girl's excitement, was part of the Quidditch tea as a chaser.

Her mentor was Penelope Haywood, or Penny, as she insisted Gardenia call her. She was the older sister of Beatrice, the fifth year prefect that had shown them around during the first day, and while her sister kept her hair short, hers was long, reaching almost her waist.

"So, you want to join the Quidditch team?" Penny asked Heidi, when the six of them, firsties and mentors were sitting in a corner, each of them with a pastry and a cup in their hands.

"Yes! I'm a beater, and a good one if I do say so myself," she chuckled, her tone lighthearted. "I wish I could try out this year instead of waiting for a whole year."

Chiara shrugged. "You don't actually have to wait until Second year to try out, there's no restriction against first years being in the team, it's just rare because they're not usually very good."

Heidi's eyes widened, and she leaned forward in excitement. "Really? When are tryouts? I didn't bring my broom because it's not allowed, but I can use the brooms we use for Flying class, right?"

Chiara chuckled, telling her to take a breath, before answering. "Tryouts are next week, and yes, you can use the school brooms, but as you're probably aware, they're not very good."

"Why aren't first years allowed brooms?" Gardenia asked.

"They allowed first years to bring brooms until the seventies, but rumor has it that two firsties managed to get stuck on the Gryffindor tower after a dare, and they banned it."

"Why does that sound like Uncle Sirius?" Nymphadora whispered to Gardenia, who laughed but nodded. It actually did. She'd have to ask him during Christmas break.

"Do you two also want to try and join the team?" Chiara asked Annabel and Gardenia, the former quickly shaking her head in denial.

"I'm terrible on a broom, Madam Hooch had to take me to the Hospital Wing last week," Annabel had hit the wall rather fast after failing to break the broom in time, resulting in a lot of bruises and what she was terrified might've been a concussion, and thankfully was just a bump.

Nymphadora smiled and patted her firstie's head. "That's alright, I do alright on a broom but I've lost count of how many times I've tripped on the moving stairs, and once I even lost my balance and had to hold on to the last step of one as it began to move," Annabel's eyes widened, but the metamorphmagus reassured her she had been alright. "Not everyone is good on a broom, but look at the bright side, you don't trip on air!"

Gardenia though the anecdote her cousin tried might have just terrified Annabel of the stairs now, instead of the desired reassurance that everyone was bad at something but the thought was what counted, and at least Heidi seemed amused.

"What about you, Gardenia?" Penny asked.

"Oh, I don't know yet, I really like Quidditch, but I'm not sure I'm good enough to play on the team," Nymphadora looked shocked by such an admission, and quickly intervened.

"Don't undersell yourself, Nia, you're a natural on a broom, with some training you can be a great player," Gardenia smiled at her cousin's compliment, she thought she was just average, but it was nice to know someone had faith in her abilities.

"You should try out with me!" Heidi exclaimed.

Gardenia knew that she was far from good enough to be able to get into the team this year, but looking at Heidi's eager expression and hopeful eyes, she couldn't bring herself to say no.

"Sure, we'll try out together," Heidi pulled her into a side hug, thanking her profusely for agreeing, and Gardenia couldn't help getting a bit excited.

She only hoped that they didn't end up making fools of themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone comes for me about the map only talking to Snape to insult him, this is a popular head cannon, and I think there is no other way for the twins to have found out if the map didn't give them hints, it is a rather specific password.
> 
> The part about the swearing came from a Tumblr post that I found way too amusing not to put in, the credits for it go to theoneblogicareabout
> 
> Also, about the Quidditch thing, first years really weren't banned from trying out, if we just go by the 'Harry is the youngest seeker in a century', that means in the last century there was someone as young as him playing, and in HBP, there were first years trying out for the Gryffindor team.
> 
> What position do you think Gardenia is best suited for in Quidditch?
> 
> This is the last chapter I had already posted on ffn, so my stock is now over, I'm currently in the process of writing the next one, but my creativity is running a bit dry and I'm stuck on a scene, so I don't know how long it's going to take, hopefully not too long.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and thank you for all the comments, they really make my day <3


	9. Chapter 9

Gardenia absolutely loved Quidditch.

She had never been a very sports enthused person in her previous life, finding most of them boring to watch and too difficult to perform herself, but in this life, she was obsessed with it.

She had received her first broom at age five, and after a month of being completely terrified about falling to her death from the five feet height the child broom rose to, Gardenia came to love the activity. There was something about flying that made her feel so carefree and happy, when she was in the air she forgot all about her responsibilities and the burden of knowing how some of the people around her would meet their end.

When she first became close with Fred and George, and consequently the whole of the Weasley family, Quidditch became even more ingrained in her life, the mock matches played with the red-headed kids a staple of her early childhood years. She even started teaching Ginny how to ride a broom and helped her break into the shed where the brooms were stored when her older brothers didn't want her to play with them(some misguided notion of protecting the youngest, which Gardenia knew would come back to haunt them in the future if Ginny went pro).

One thing she didn't know, however, was what position she was good at. Shed never felt drawn to any of them, not like Fred and George's eyes shone from the first moment they heard they could be a team within a team, or like how Charlie was a natural seeker, drawn to the snitch and liking the individuality the position brought. She usually played as a chaser, the most abundant position and one they always needed in the mock matches, but she wasn't a chaser, not in the way the twins were beaters and Charlie was a seeker.

Heidi, on the other hand, knew perfectly what position to play. The girl was a beater through and through, and in Gardenia's opinion, it suited her quite well. She couldn't beat people in her day to day life, so at least she had the opportunity to discharge her anger when beating a Bludger in a game.

The current captain of the team was Phillip Cadwallader, a sixth-year with dark hair and an olive complexion, along with an impressive physique, courtesy of years of training. He seemed nice enough, if not a little too easy-going, according to Nymphadora. Her cousin thought maybe a little more tough love could improve the team, but Phillip seemed to be of the 'as long as we have fun' mentality.

Gardenia was glad for that though, at least it seemed she and Heidi would not be laughed out of the field for being first years.

"So, the way tryouts work for our team is anyone who wants to try out for any position, even the ones already occupied, is allowed to," Cadwallader began, standing in the middle of the pitch facing the group of students from all ages hoping to join the team. "If there aren't any people trying out for a position already filled, the current team member stays by default. Otherwise, the performances will be compared against each other, today's stats for whoever is trying out against last week's stats for the team member."

His co-captain, a tall seventh year with pale blond hair and light green eyes named Archibald Beauregard, stood next to Cadwallader. "Whoever does better will get the position on the main team, while the others might join the reserve team," Beauregard explained, a contrast to his captain's sunny demeanor with an emotionless face and intimidating aura.

It was more egalitarian then Gardenia expected, she thought the team members would have guaranteed positions, but they were going for a more merit-based system, probably to increase chances of building a good team. She had no idea how the other houses went about their tryouts since Harry skipped that part, but she had a feeling each house had the liberty to choose, maybe she could grill Charlie on it later and hope he wouldn't mind.

"We'll begin with some basic flying, at least ten reps around the pitch," Cadwallader explained.

That seemed sensible, weed out the people who couldn't fly all that well before beginning with the more specific trials.

Gardenia, with her school-provided broom, Heidi by her side, flew into the air along with the dozen or so people who were her competition. Cadwallader also mounted his broom, probably to evaluate everyone's flying skills from above, while Beauregard stayed on the ground to provide a different point of view. The other members of the team, a girl with copper-red hair, less bright then what Gardenia was used to seeing, and a boy with short-cropped dark hair stood alongside Chiara a little further away, observing.

Now in the air, Gardenia awaited Cadwallader's sign. "On the count of three, you can start."

"One."

Looking around her, she saw most people were gearing up to fly fast, leaning forward in their brooms and making themselves the smallest they could. She saw Cedric, who Heidi had told about trying out, doing the same.

"Two."

Heidi grinned at her, her stance relaxed, and Gardenia marveled at how calm her friend was. Gardenia smiled back, grip on the old Cleansweep tightening for a moment in anticipation.

"Three."

It was like the start of a horse race, but instead of the sound of hooves on the ground, it was the blast of air from the brooms, a girl with light brown hair shot up straight to the front, Cedric not far behind her. Two boys, a gangly one and a rather stocky one, were at the back, the gangly one holding on to his broom rather precariously, while the other one seemed unable to make his broom go faster.

Heidi, although not fighting for first place as Cedric and the girl were, was speeding a fair bit, probably not liking that Cedric was in front of her. Gardenia was never a fan of racing, but she wasn't sure what exactly Cadwallader wanted from them, and she wasn't about to fail during the first part because she preferred to leisurely do her laps.

People were treating this as a race, sticking mostly to the same altitude and creating a concentrated area of flyers. There were people in front of her and on both her sides, so she decided to go up. They had the whole pitch at their disposal, and she decided to take advantage of that, now flying above the rest but still behind those in the front. By now a whole lap had gone by, and most had noticed what she did and decided to do the same, some going up and others down.

Not wanting to be upstaged, Gardenia decided to play up her advantages, the biggest being the small frame that allowed her to be more agile than most. She'd been told before it was the perfect build for a seeker, but if there was one position in Quidditch she couldn't play for the life of her, it was that one. She and the snitch did not get along, trying to find it in the pitch during a game was the same as trying to keep up with a fruit fly in the Great Hall, and Gardenia had a hard time doing that and being aware of the other players flying around her.

The one time she played in a mock match as a seeker, she had been up against Charlie, and while he didn't tease her, he looked a bit too smug for comfort afterward.

She skirted around those that had flown upward, not trying to get ahead, but wanting to show her flying abilities. As she skirted around a boy with strawberry blond hair, she startled him into initiating a brake and almost losing his balance. " _Oi_ , watch it!"

Gardenia glanced over her shoulder, he had recovered from the loss of momentum and was back to speed. She smiled apologetically and mouthed a 'sorry'.

The laps went by rather quickly, especially for those that were going as fast as they could. Cadwallader signaled for them to land as soon as they finished, and did so himself after most people had completed the ten reps. Only those two boys that had been at the back still hadn't finished, but Cadwallader asked them to land either way.

"That was better than I expected," he said with a smile. "I never said it was a race, though."

Cedric rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, while the brown-haired girl that had stayed in the lead for the whole time showed no reaction.

"We had you do the laps to assess your flying skills, as well as your style of flying," Cadwallader explained. "As you know, seekers have to be fast and agile, chasers fast and aggressive enough to make it across the field, beaters must be well balanced to manage to fly and swing the bat with force simultaneously, and keepers quick and with strong reflexes."

"The second part of tryouts is more specific, we'll start with chasers," he stated. "A simple passing the quaffle exercise, each of you will be doing that with Lobusca, and all the ones that manage not to drop it will be trying to score against our current keeper. Meanwhile, whoever wants to try out for beater will be batting this," Cadwallader held up what looked to be a bludger. "It's a modified bludger, it won't fly around as much, and it tends to come back to the beater rather than go after chasers."

"Keepers will be defending the hoops from Lobusca, a total of ten tries to block the quaffle," he continued. "As for seekers, after all of the others finished, the snitch will be released, and one at a time, you'll be timed until you catch it."

The brown-haired girl, who looked to be a fourth year, Gardenia, and a third year boy made their way toward Chiara, as instructed. The boy was the first one to go, passing the ball with Chiara around the pitch, but even from the ground Gardenia could see his throws were not very accurate, Chiara having to dive after them, and when he caught the quaffle, he became unbalanced and his grip was not strong.

"He has weak arms," the girl, who was standing next to Gardenia, commented. Her voice held no malice, it was simply an observation.

"How can you tell? Maybe he just has bad aim."

The girl shook her head. "He's aiming at the right spot for Lobusca to catch, but because the throw doesn't have enough force behind it, it ends up falling short, and she has to go after it," she explained. "If it was just a bad aim, he could hold the quaffle with one arm and still manage to fly well, but he needs both of them to catch it."

Gardenia nodded, understanding, and not soon after their conversation, the boy tried catching the quaffle with only one arm and let it fall to the ground when he lost his balance. Chiara dove to catch it, and with the quaffle, she landed. Chiara motioned to the fourth year girl to fly up, and once they were in the air, Gardenia observed her.

All of the critiques she made toward the boy could not in any way be applied to her, she caught the quaffle with ease, sometimes with both her hands, but even with only her legs for support, she was still flying expertly. Her throws were precise, Chiara having no trouble catching them, and the two girls made the passing exercise look like child's play. After a few minutes without having the quaffle fall, they landed, and it was Gardenia's turn.

She didn't do as poorly as the boy, but she was nowhere near as good as the girl. Gardenia managed to catch the quaffle, but she wasn't very good at aiming, finding that keeping up with where Chiara was, balancing herself on her broom while holding the quaffle and throwing accurately was a bit too much.

Gardenia didn't drop the quaffle, but she had a few mishaps, where the toss was short and Chiara had to go after it and Gardenia managed to lose her balance when throwing.

"Fairchild, Fawley," she heard Cadwallader call after her turn was over and Chiara had talked to him. "You two will be trying to score against Beauregard, ten tries each."

Fairchild, the brown-haired girl, went first.

She had no doubt Beauregard must be a good keeper, but Fairchild managed to score seven out of ten, and the ones that she missed were because Beauregard went above and beyond to stop her. He had to use the end of his broom to block a throw to the left hoop, using it almost as a bat, which impressed Gardenia, but she was also impressed with Fairchild. The girl was great at feints, and she threw the quaffle in a way it _spun_ , so it went in a fast curve, seemingly going to enter the middle hoop but going into the right or left on at the last second.

Gardenia was less than confident when it was her turn, but Cadwallader gave her a thumbs up and Chiara smiled encouragingly. It must be a rather cute sight for them, a slip of a first-year girl trying to score against their keeper, and after the performance Fairchild had given.

It might've been amusing, but Gardenia found it rather sad.

Zero out of ten.

Even Beauregard looked sorry for her, but honestly, she couldn't tell. The guy had a great poker face, even when he didn't manage to defend the seven goals Fairchild had made, he looked as calm as ever.

She resigned herself to her fate, going to where the others that had failed, the ones waiting for their turn, and the rest of the current team members who weren't participating in the tryouts were. The beaters were currently also trying out, that boy she had almost made fall was flying with a bat in hand, gaze focused on what she assumed was the modified bludger. The pitch had been divided for this part, on one half the chasers, on the other half the beaters, but now he had the whole pitch at his disposal since the chasers had finished.

Taking note of that, he twirled the bat in his hand, as she had seen baseball players do before, and waited for the oncoming bludger. As soon as it was withing hitting distance, he flew toward it and hit it with so much force the sound of the bat making contact with the bludger could be heard across the pitch, and he was thrown back a bit due to the sheer force he put into it.

One of the current players, the tall guy with short-cropped hair and arms that could probably rip a piece of wood in half, whistled in awe. "That one was impressive."

The red-haired girl, who was about as tall as Gardenia expected to be one day, scoffed. "Of course the way to impress you is to hit something very hard, why am I not surprised, Ward?"

"Oh, c'mon Mack, don't you tell me that kid isn't a damn good beater," the guy, Ward, replied.

Mack, crossing her arms, shrugged. "He's alright I suppose. It's about time we get someone that's competent with a bat on this team."

"Hey! I take offense to that."

"Sounds like a _you_ problem," she replied, smirking.

Ward was scowling, but after about five seconds he broke into a smile and ruffled Mack's hair, which she didn't like if the way she grabbed his hand, twisted his arm, and held against his back was any indication. "Hands off the hair."

"Are you two scaring away our potential teammates with your infantility?" Beauregard, who had been standing not far from them, asked, his tone serious.

"He touched my hair, Archie!"

"She insulted my skills and is now taking very poor care of my moneymakers."

"Your arms are your moneymakers, Ward? No wonder you're always complaining about being broke."

Beauregard sighed, looking tired. "Mackenzie, let go of Ward." Mackenzie didn't look happy about it, but she complied. "Ward, you know better than to touch Mackenzie's hair, stop antagonizing her."

Gardenia was looking at their interactions with interest, but as soon as Beauregard's gaze fell on her, she looked away, feeling the tip of her ears warm at being caught. 

The boy who had done the equivalent of a home run had finished after hitting a few more times, demonstrating he could control the direction of the bludger and not just sent it to oblivion, and Heidi was the next one up. She watched as her friend hit the bludger, not as strong as that boy had, but with a force that made her pity whoever picked a fight with Heidi in the future, or insulted Hufflepuff in her vicinity when neither Gardenia nor Annabel was there to hold her back.

Heidi was the last one to try out, and as she landed, a bright smile on her face, she headed toward Gardenia.

"You did great," she told Heidi.

"Thanks!" Her face was sweaty and her hair had come out of the ponytail it'd been on, sticking to her neck. "You did well on the passing exercise, but Beauregard is a great keeper," she said. "I bet with some more training you can score a few against him!"

"It's alright, I'm not really good at being a chaser," Gardenia shrugged. "Maybe next year."

Next were the keepers, and to her surprise, only one boy was trying out for the position, the stocky one that hadn't finished the laps. She supposed flying fast wasn't as much of a big deal when you were a keeper since you didn't have to go much further than the hoops, but he needed to be quick enough to stop the quaffle.

"Oh, that looks like a disaster about to happen," she heard Ward say.

"He probably thinks his size is a good thing for a Keeper, but being big enough to block a hoop is worth nothing if you can't move quickly from one to the other," Beauregard commented.

"There's the Keeper gear too, it adds a few pounds doesn't it?" Mackenzie asked, receiving a nod of confirmation from Beauregard.

Their predictions were correct because out of the ten tries Chiara had to score, she did so nine times, and the one she didn't was probably a fluke because it was slower than usual, even her passes to Gardenia during her own trial were faster than that one.

"Great, no reserve keeper once again," Ward said.

Beauregard didn't respond, looking at Cadwallader while he talked to the prospective seekers. Chiara seemed to be consoling the boy who'd done poorly as a keeper, patting his shoulder and talking in a low voice to him.

Cedric was the first of the two people to try out for seeker, and after sixteen minutes, he had the golden snitch in his hands.

"What was your best again, Mack?" Ward asked.

"During training, empty pitch?" Ward nodded. "Six and a half minutes."

"You won't be substituted by a firstie, then."

Mackenzie scoffed. "Af if that was ever a possibility."

After Cedric, it was the turn of a fifth-year girl, who after half an hour, landed and said she gave up.

That concluded the tryouts, and Gardenia was about to head to the locker rooms along with Heidi when she heard a voice calling for her. Stopping and turning around, she was met with Archibald Beauregard.

"Fawley, right?" Gardenia nodded, confused.

"Are you dead set on being a chaser?" he inquired.

"Not really, it's just the position I think I'm best at."

He looked toward where Cadwallader was talking with Chiara and motioned for her to follow him. Giving Heidi a puzzled look, she told her to go change without her, but Heidi said she'd stay. So the two first years went after the co-captain.

"Phillip," Beauregard called, catching his attention. "I have an idea."

Cadwallader's eyebrows rose, and he looked at Gardenia and Heidi. "Are you sure? She tried out for chaser, after all."

"She's not set on it."

Gardenia was pretty confused, but there was no harm in waiting to see what this was about.

Giving her a considering look, Cadwallader nodded. "If you think it's a good idea, sure."

"What are you talking about?" Gardenia decided to ask.

Beauregard turned to her. "I'm graduating this year, and we'll be left without a Keeper. I was hoping someone would be good enough to join the reserve team and substitute me next year, but no such luck."

"He wants to know if you'd be willing to be a keeper, and train as part of the reserve team with us," Cadwallader explained.

To say she was surprised was an understatement. "What? Why do you think I'd be a good keeper? Why not ask the boy who tried out for it?"

"For me to train someone to substitute me they have to have at least some talent, and unfortunately, that boy's not it," Beauregard said, and Cadwallader looked exasperated by his lack of tact. "You did decently on the ten laps, you just suck at throwing the quaffle."

"Right," Cadwallader interrupted. "What he means is, you have potential."

"So, do you accept?"

Gardenia looked at the two boys, and then at Chiara, who didn't look the least surprised by the situation, and finally to Heidi, who had an excited smile and whose eyes were practically screaming ' _accept, you idiot!_ '.

"Um, sure," she answered, a little taken aback by the offer in the first place.

Cadwallader smiled, dimples forming and teeth showing, while Beauregard nodded, and without a word, left. Heidi gripped her arm and jumped in place, showing all the excitement Gardenia was still to shocked to demonstrate.

"The official results will be on the common room board this weekend," Cadwallader told them before leaving to follow his teammate.

Gardenia was left with Heidi and Chiara, wondering what the hell had just happened, and managed to not process a single word said between mentor and mentee until they went to the change rooms.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Gardenia tried to be positive about all the subjects she was learning but had a hard time when it came to Astronomy, mainly because it was late at night(midnight!), and sleep was very precious to the girl.

She never had the phase of hating bedtime in this life, mostly because after a certain age, you actually liked sleeping, and having that mentality when you were a child made for the best nighttime behaviors.

Not to say she didn't ever stay up late, but if she had to, the reason would be more compelling than studying the stars.

You could probably find any of the ridiculously complicated stat charts they were made to draw in an astrology magazine with horoscopes of the week, and the point of the whole activity was lost upon her.

Maybe to centaurs reading the night sky could prove useful, but to wizards? Hardly.

She could understand some aspects in which the affairs of outer space affected magical life, some potions were more potent when brewed during certain moon phases, certain magic plants had to be planted when the sky had a certain formation, but making students draw star charts and record their movement didn't have anything to do with that aspect of it.

This was the useless subject, not freaking Divination.

It was also a bummer how archaic the study of the stars was when you're from a time when the colonization of Mars is an actual possibility in just a few decades, looking through a telescope and tracking the movements of the Astros is just not that exciting.

"People are always saying muggles are retrograde but at least we've been to the moon," Gardenia heard a grumble coming from a boy with glasses and a mess of brown curls on his head, gold and red tie around his neck.

Gardenia glanced at him and grinned, she wasn't the only one to think wizards could be a bit backward. The boy, feeling eyes on him, looked at her and blushed, embarrassed at being caught.

"I mean no offense, of course, it's just so baffling how wizards have all this power and instead of going to the moon or even other planets they just study star charts and leave at that," he rambled, while avoiding to look directly at her.

"No need to explain yourself, I agree," Gardenia said after the boy stopped talking. She felt a little bad making him nervous like that.

He looked at her then, eyes wide. "You do? Are you muggleborn too?"

Gardenia shook her head. "I'm a half-blood, but I know a lot about muggle culture, and I also think wizards are a little behind when it comes to this."

The boy grinned at that, and suddenly the nervousness was gone. "Right? I mean, NASA is going to launch a freaking space telescope next year, an observatory that can help us understand star birth and death, and might even prove the existence of black holes!"

She smiled at his excitement, it seems she had found a genuine space nerd.

"Hubble, right? I think I read an article about it," she commented, Gardenia wasn't very knowledgeable about such things like the Gryffindor seemed to be, but she knew enough to manage a conversation about it. Future knowledge and various sci-fi movies also helped.

He looked positively giddy at her comment, probably not having found any other first-years who knew about NASA and space, much less actually knew what he was talking about, especially if he didn't have any muggleborn year mates.

"Yes! Can you imagine the types of pictures we'll get? I bet that with magic we could build a telescope that could capture images with the same accuracy as the Hubble, or at least, something close," he wrinkled his nose. "But all we have are these ones that look straight out of the 19th century."

She smiled, letting the boy ramble on about the topic, nodding and responding when necessary. "Oh, I'm Sebastian, by the way."

"Gardenia Fawley, a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, I forgot my last name, sorry, I'm just not used to introducing myself with it, but everyone here seems to do that, some even start with it!" Sebastian rambled. "There was this boy in my dorms that I though was named Sullivan because he introduced himself like that, but his name is actually John, and-"

Gardenia couldn't help a chuckle, and Sebastian must've taken it the wrong way because he stopped talking and blushed. "It's Grayson, my last name. I talk a lot sometimes, sorry."

She shook her head, nudging him to look at her. "Don't worry, I don't mind," Gardenia said, smiling to reassure him. "You're American, right?"

"Did my accent give me away?" Gardenia nodded. "I've been trying to adhere to the slangs here but it just sounds weird when I say it."

"I thought about trying out a fake English accent before starting here, but it was too much of a hassle," he said. "I probably would've given up halfway through the first day and then people would just be really confused."

He didn't seem like he was joking, so Gardenia refrained from laughing.

"Do you think Professor Sinistra would mind if instead of using the recommend material from the library for the essay, I use the Astronomical Journal I brought?"

"You could use both, I think she wouldn't mind information from a different source, but if she does, using a magical textbook as well will make sure she doesn't completely disregard it."

Sebastian's eyes sparkled and he grinned at her. "That's a good idea, thanks Gar!"

Astronomy was a bit more enjoyable with the constant chattering of the Gryffindor, and she learned more from his random facts about space then she had so far from class.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

"Are you trying to spy on my Quidditch team?"

Gardenia sported a look of outrage at the accusation, looking at Charlie like he'd committed a great offense.

"What? How dare you suggest such a thing?"

Charlie chuckled, recognizing the expression for what it was. "You're in a rival House's team, and you're asking me about how the tryouts of Gryffindor work."

"I'm just curious!" Gardenia exclaimed. "And how do you know I'm in the team?"

Sitting at the Gryffindor table during the early hours of a Friday, the Great Hall was all but empty, only a few early birds had made their way to get breakfast. Gardenia liked to wake up early, she was more of a morning person, but Wednesday's Astronomy classes were taking a toll on her, and it was becoming a rare occurrence for her to wake up before any of her dormmates.

Charlie, also an early riser, had absolutely no issue with waking at the crack of dawn, and Gardenia pitied the Gryffindor team, who endured plenty of very early morning training sessions with him as captain.

Seeing the redhead already up and eating breakfast, coupled with the fact she didn't know anyone currently at the Hufflepuff table, Gardenia had decided to sit next to Charlie and sate some of her curiosities.

"Dora told me," he answered, adding more scrambled eggs to his plate. "Congrats on making reserve, by the way."

Gardenia smiled. "Thanks, Charlie. I can't believe it, to be honest."

Gardenia was still in disbelief about the whole thing, she had played as a keeper before, but she didn't think she was any good at it. And truthfully, she probably wasn't. Beauregard chose her because she has potential, not because she's a good player. She wondered how the hell he could tell something like that, but it was far from Gardenia to question the guy. It wasn't that he intimidated her, it was more that she couldn't read his expression at all.

And yeah, she admits he can look a bit intimidating, but he seems nice enough. Or at least, him being friends with Cadwallader makes her think he can't be that bad.

"So, how did Gryffindor trials go?" Gardenia asked, changing subjects.

"It went well, we have a new Keeper, a friend of Percy's," he said. "Everyone else was already on the team but we're hoping to add some reserves next year since half the team is sixth years."

"Did the twins not try out?"

He shook his head. "I forbade them from trying out, I want them to focus on their studies for at least their first year," Charlie put a few scrambled eggs on Gardenia's plate as well, after noticing her's was empty. "They're already using a lot of their free time for pranks, and I know they'd sacrifice studying time."

He wasn't wrong, she had little doubt Fred and George would skip doing an essay before skipping executing a prank.

"I'll let them try out next year, one of our beaters is graduating anyway, and I have a feeling Samson would rather focus on N.E.W.T.s."

Gardenia started eating the scrambled eggs, not wanting Charlie to feel bad she wasn't eating them and refrained from complaining at the added toast on her plate. "And what exactly were tryouts?"

Charlied sighed, resigned. "No babbling about it to Cadwallader, alright?"

Gardenia giggled at his secretive tone. "It's not state secrets Charlie, it's Quidditch."

"Here at Hogwarts, it might as well be," he winked at her.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Saturday couldn't come fast enough for Heidi, who ever since the Tuesday of the tryouts had been excitedly waiting for the results.

She woke up hearing the voices of Heidi and Caroline bickering, or more accurately, Heidi doing something Caroline doesn't like and the girl scolding her for it.

"It's disgusting!" Caroline exclaimed.

"It's hair, Caroline, we all have it," Heidi countered.

Gardenia opened the curtains to her bed, finding that Annabel was silently braiding her hair, Maxine was asleep, and Caroline was in front of Heidi's bed with her arms crossed while Heidi tied her shoes.

"But I don't leave mine in the shower wall! It's common sense to throw it in the bin."

"I forgot! I wanted to get ready as fast as I could, it slipped my mind."

Gardenia tuned it out, getting up to grab some clothes and making her way to the bathroom, where she shut the door and thanked whatever architectural magic that made the bathroom practically soundproof. She had tried to be the peacekeeper between her two roommates for two weeks, giving up after realizing it served no purpose other than to make Caroline annoyed and make Heidi feel self-righteous.

It was mostly inconsequential bickering, so Gardenia didn't feel bad for not interfering. She, Annabel, and Maxine usually left them to their own devices when it became obvious they weren't going to listen to reason, and so far it was the best strategy.

Preferring to take her showers in the evening, Gardenia just brushed her teeth, put her hair up, and changed into jeans and a pastel pink knitted sweater with a G in white(courtesy of Mrs. Weasley for her birthday this year) and left the bathroom.

By the time she'd returned, Caroline was gone, Maxine was still asleep, and Annabel and Heidi were waiting for her.

"Let's go Gar, the results for tryouts are probably already out," Heidi said, practically jumping in place due to excitement. 

The three girls left the dorm and went into the common room, wherein one of the walls there was a board with various pamphlets, some about the Hogwarts clubs, others with information on tutoring lessons, and some inspirational phrases. The newest addition to the board was the list of the Quidditch team, informing who was in the main team, and who was in the reserve team.

Gardenia, when first hearing about the reserve team, had thought it was something like substitute players, which made sense if one of the titular players was injured or indisposed. While that was one of the purposes of the team, it also existed to serve as a way for players who had potential to train with the team and increase their skills, eventually moving on to the main team if they managed to improve enough. Some players, if they were in the last year at Hogwarts, scouted a younger year to enter the reserve team to substitute them, as not to leave the team hanging in case of not finding a good enough player in the next year. It also improved team relations, since if someone had been training with the team for at least a year before actually joining, there would be a greater camaraderie.

Heidi squealed in excitement, pulling Annabel, who had been standing next to her, into a hug. "I made reserve!"

Annabel looked squished and slightly uncomfortable, but she pat Heidi's back and let the girl hug her. "Congratulations."

**_HUFFLEPUFF QUIDDITCH TEAM 1989-90_ **

_RESULTS OF TRYOUTS_

_Chasers :_

_Phillip Cadwallader_

_Aurea Fairchild_

_Chiara Lobusca_

_Beaters :_

_Nicholas Murphy_

_Gunner Ward_

_Keeper :_

_Archibald Beauregard_

_Seeker :_

_Charlotte Mackenzie_

_RESERVE TEAM_

_Tamsin Applebee_

_Cedric Diggory_

_Gardenia Fawley_

_Heidi Macavoy_

"Who's Murphy?" Gardenia asked, not having a face to put to the name.

Heidi, having let go of Annabel now hugging Gardenia, let go of her as well and scowled.

"It's that guy who hit the bludger with so much strength it cracked the bat."

Annabel's eyes widened. "Cracked the bat?"

"Yeah, he's freaky strong," Heidi confirmed, not looking very pleased with that. "I know he's better than me, he's a third-year and no one can deny that cracking a wooden bat is badass, but he's an arse."

"Is he really, or are you just saying that because he got the beater position?" Annabel asked, making Gardenia smile. One month ago she would've never dared to suggest Heidi was petty, but after spending more time with her and Gardenia, she'd become more confident around the two of them. She still was as meek as a mouse around most people, it'd taken a week for her to stop getting nervous around Nymphadora enough to ask her questions, but she was improving.

"Bit of both," Heidi replied.

Gardenia hoped he wasn't one to hold grudges, the last thing she wanted was someone that could crack a bat as an enemy.

She wondered who Applebee was, the name didn't ring any bells, and she didn't think she'd seen her during tryouts.

"What about Applebee?"

Heidi shrugged. "No idea, she wasn't at tryouts."

"Reserve team members needn't secure their positions," a voice came from behind them, making Annabel jump in surprise.

Beauregard stood in front of them, and Gardenia had to wonder if he used a Notice Me Not charm on himself, the guy moved like a ghost. Annabel, losing all of the confidence she had when around just her two friends, looked as spooked as Gardenia felt by his sudden appearance.

"She's a second year, made reserve last year," he explained.

"What position does she play?" Heidi asked, being the only one out of the three girls who seemed entirely unaffected by Beauregard's presence.

"Chaser, we try to have at least one reserve for each position, as you might've noticed."

Gardenia nodded, not sure what to say. She was starting to dread training with Beauregard, mostly because she had no clue how to interact with him. She was used to being around either people her age(because in a way, _Gardenia_ was only eleven), or if they were older, usually a Weasley or her cousin. It was an easy-going way of interacting that was familiar to Gardenia, and so far, all the upper years she'd interacted with were as sweet as pie and made her feel very comfortable in their presence.

You could say she'd been spoiled by being around so many amiable people(Percy might not fit that description to most people, but when you didn't antagonize him, he could be quite mellow).

Beauregard, on the other hand, was going to require a different approach.

"Training is twice a week, Tuesday and Saturday mornings, seven and eight o'clock respectively," he told them. "Don't be late."

And with that, he was gone.

"Is he the captain?" Annabel asked.

"Co-captain, and Gar's mentor," Heidi answered.

"He's not going to train me directly," Gardenia said, and then she turned toward her friend, eyes wide. "Wait, is he?"

Heidi shrugged. "No idea, but good luck if he is, I hear Beauregard is a hard-ass."

Just her luck.

"Let's go get breakfast, and you two can tell me more about Quidditch. I still don't get the point of a seeker, what if they catch the snitch after five minutes?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must’ve changed the layout of this chapter three times while writing it, only the first scene was originally supposed to be in it, but I decided that the ones that were supposed to follow fit better in the next few chapters
> 
> I love Sebastian, and let me tell you, some characters have a will of their own because suddenly he was American and had a whole backstory instead of being a random gryffindor nerd
> 
> I researched quidditch way too much for this chapter, I wanted to find something about how the tryouts were conducted, but no such luck. I know some people might be skeptical of the three of them making the reserve team, but I think of it as a sort of a little league of Hogwarts Quidditch, minus games, if that makes sense. The reserve team is less for substitute players, and more to collect talent that isn’t yet good enough to play in actual games, but with training and experience, they’ll get better. Basically, anyone who has potential, in you go into the reserve team. Not to mention Cadwallader is a softie and he doesn’t want to reject anyone. 
> 
> Also, some things about Hogwarts Quidditch are nonsense, like only six matches per year, and the no substitute rule, so that’s out the window here. I had a headache thinking about how to change things, but I’ll go into detail in the future chapters ;)
> 
> Apparently, Katie Bell made reserve team in her first year, which is mostly due to JK not being good at math and so having to fill a plot hole, but I took that little info and made it into an actual thing here. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading, and hopefully, the next chapter doesn’t take as long sz


	10. Chapter 10

Beauregard either hated her, children in general, or he was a sadist. Gardenia was leaning toward all three.

Lying on the grass of the Quidditch pitch, exhausted beyond belief, Gardenia questioned, not for the first time, her decision to join the team.

"You alright there, firstie?" Mackenzie's head appeared above her.

"I can't feel my legs."

The older girl laughed and extended a hand for Gardenia to grab onto as she pulled her up.

"The first few weeks are tough, but you'll get used to it in no time at all."

"I think Beauregard might want to make me hate Quidditch," Gardenia commented, dusting off her training clothes.

"Archie is a tough coach, but he means well," Mackenzie replied. "He's building up your stamina right now, and then he'll start with the more specific training. A Quidditch game can last for hours, and you need to be able to not tire out after just a few minutes."

Gardenia nodded, Mackenzie's explanation made sense and brought a little bit of sanity to all the exercises she'd been put through for the last three weeks, but it would've been nice if Beauregard had told her the purpose of it, instead of just making her run laps across the Quidditch pitch(which was ginormous when compared to a football field) until she dropped.

Mackenzie seemed to read what she was thinking from the look in her face because the girl chuckled and patted Gardenia on the shoulder. "Archie forgets that other people don't automatically reach the same conclusion as him, he probably just thought there was no reason to explain."

"So, he's socially inept?"

This time, Mackenzie laughed, her eyes shining. "You could say that."

Heidi and Cedric, the other two first years in the reserve team, followed a more general training along with the main team, not being required to do as well since they were new to the regime. Gardenia, on the other hand, was to follow a set of exercises created by Beauregard, since she got in to eventually replace him, and he wanted to make sure she was up to the standard. She was a bit resentful of that, if only for how sore her muscles were after each training, but she understood why. Every other position was filled with people who would still be at Hogwarts for at least another year, while they would be left without a Keeper in the next year.

Did that make her any less annoyed at Beauregard and his methods? Not really, but she was at trying to understand his reasons.

She headed to the changing rooms with Mackenzie by her side, the older girl venting about her classes while Gardenia listened, nodding at the appropriate times. The sixth-year shared a dorm with her cousin and her mentor, so Gardenia was amused by her recounting of events that involved Nymphadora and Penny.

"Do you think I can still drop out of N.E.W.T level Potions?" Mackenzie asked after a particular rant about Snape.

"I have no idea," Gardenia responded. "But you don't need that class to become an Auror?"

"Yes, but Tonks managed to get detention for a month with Snape and he's even meaner to us now."

Gardenia frowned, she hadn't seen her cousin at dinner the previous evening, or this morning. "How did Dora manage a month of detention with Snape? Did she blow up a cauldron?"

Mackenzie shook her head. "While I don't like the consequences of it, I have to admit it was brilliant," she smirked, lowering her voice as if telling a secret. "Tonks morphed herself into Snape, and taught the class for a few minutes in a ridiculous impersonation of him before the real Snape arrived."

Eyes widening, Gardenia choked on a laugh. "I can't believe she did that."

"Most of us were fooled for a bit, I caught on after five million points were taken from Gryffindor because Weasley sneezed."

Giving up on containing her amusement, laughter spewed from Gardenia, Mackenzie joining in. She had to admit, while she hadn't expected that, it wasn't all that surprising, considering it was Nymphadora they were talking about here.

They were the last people to arrive in the change rooms, Chiara was leaving and Heidi was brushing her hair when they got there, Applebee and Fairchild probably still in the showers going by the running water that could be heard.

Gardenia quickly made her way to one of the available showers, knowing Heidi would wait for her so they could grab breakfast together. It was thankfully a Saturday, so no need to rush so they wouldn't be late to class, but Gardenia didn't want to dally for too long, during the weekend people tended to get up later than usual and she didn't want Heidi to have to fight someone for pancakes. Again.

While she usually preferred taking showers at night, she had to make an exception during the days she had training, otherwise, she'd be smelly and uncomfortable for the whole day. Another thing that annoyed her about this new routine in her life, but one she could get used to.

After she changed into her normal clothes, dripping hair going down hair back and wetting her sweater, Gardenia sat beside Heidi and began to try her best to dry her hair with the towel. She wished the spell for that wasn't so difficult, her mother had tried teaching her but Gardenia accidentally singed the ends of her hair and decided it has best not to try again until she improved a bit in her spell work.

"I can help you with that if you want."

She looked up to see Fairchild, looking impeccable in a blouse and skirt, along with perfectly styled hair, soft brown curls resting upon her shoulders.

"That'd be great, thank you," Gardenia answered, glad to not have to suffer wet hair in a chilly morning.

Fairchild didn't say anything as she went behind Gardenia, gathering her hair and brushing it with the comb she took from her hand. With the towel on the bench beside her, Gardenia felt the warm sensation of the drying spell as Fairchild cast it, her hair now falling softly down her back, no longer wet.

Gardenia smiled and took back the comb. "Thank you so much, I can't for the life of me do that spell correctly."

"It's no problem," Fairchild replied, going back to her locker and gathering her belongings, closing the door of the compartment.

A girl of few words, unless quidditch was involved, but she seemed nice enough. At least she talked to them, unlike Applebee, who Gardenia thought would've been more welcoming considering their closer age, but if anything, was the most distant of the whole team, including Beauregard. At least the co-captain talked to them and seemed like he was friends with most of the sixth years on the team.

The other rather prickly member of their team was Murphy, the beater who did indeed hold grudges and almost knocked Gardenia out of her broom with a bludger during their first practice. He had seemed apologetic, she couldn't help but think it was payback for her throwing him off balance during tryouts. But even without that incident, he was rather snappy at her and didn't seem overly fond of anyone, or anything, with the exception of Quidditch.

As she and Heidi made their way to the Great Hall, they passed Chiara heading toward Professor's Sprout's office, and Gardenia questioned Heidi about it.

"Is she in any trouble?"

Heidi shook her head. "She's got an important family thing, she's heading home via Floo for the weekend."

She hoped it was nothing bad had happened to warrant her going home, but if Heidi didn't seem too worried about it, then it probably wasn't anything too serious. At least she wasn't in the same amount of trouble Nymphadora currently was.

In the Hufflepuff table, Annabel was sitting alone but had two plates of pancakes along with her own. She gave each of them one, and Gardenia narrowed her eyes at her. Annabel was more sneaky then she appeared, knowing that while Gardenia didn't like eating in the mornings, she needed sustenance after exercising, and was too much of softie to make her efforts of saving a coveted food in their table be for naught.

Begrudgingly accepting the plate, she sat down, making herself a warm cup of coffee while Heidi wasted no time in digging into the food.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Gardenia had a mission, and that was to avoid every single ghost at Hogwarts for the entirety of her school years.

Until now, that had not been particularly hard, the ghosts didn't spend a lot of time among the living, and she could easily go to another corridor when walking through the castle to avoid one if she saw them. Professor Binns was another matter entirely, she had been worried during the first day of classes, but soon realized he was so out of tune with the world her presence went unnoticed.

Halloween, however, changed things.

Something about the day made the barrier between the living and the dead weaker, and the phantoms became more active and more in touch with their surroundings. This made Gardenia's self-appointed mission exponentially harder, and so, during the thirty first of October, Gardenia decided to fake an illness and spend the day burrowed under her covers.

"You're ill? On Halloween?" Heidi practically whined, clearly disappointed in Gardenia's inability to stay healthy during what she considered to be the best of all holidays.

"Yes, now leave me alone," Gardenia grumbled, burrowing herself further into her bedding.

To make sure she would not risk being outed, Gardenia had gone the extra mile to ensure her unwell being. She sneaked out during the night, opened a window in the common room, and let the cold breeze freeze her into numbness. That wasn't guaranteed to make her sick, so she added in a self-inflicted jinx for good measure.

"But you'll miss the Halloween Feast!"

Gardenia didn't respond, face down on her pillow.

"Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing?" Annabel said, sitting down in the bed beside Gardenia and gently turning her face up, and feeling her forehead for a fever. "You're not burning up, but you do feel a little warm."

The idea wasn't all that bad, in the Hospital Wing, if she did end up facing a ghost, she would be able to either pretend unconsciousness or scream loud enough that Madam Pomfrey came to her rescue. At least then she would have a legitimate excuse for skipping class.

"Yeah, do that, you might be well enough for the feast if you go now!"

Annabel and Heidi accompanied her to the Hospital Wing, the former looking worried and the latter impatient, wanting to get there as fast as possible so Gardenia could get cured and leave.

Gardenia ended up managing to convince Madam Pomfrey she was truly unwell, and after a Pepper-up Potion, she was allowed to stay in the Hospital Wing for the night. She had an inkling it was mostly because Madam Pomfrey didn't think any eleven-year-old would pretend to be sick to miss the Halloween Feast.

It was now evening, the feast in full swing, and she was by herself, Madam Pomfrey had given her a bowl of soup and some crackers before heading to the Great Hall.

She was staring at the ceiling, trying and failing to count the cracks in it since it was high enough that none were visible, while regretting her decision to refuse a Sleeping Draught.

"I was told there was someone like you this year, but I did not believe it until seeing it by myself."

Gardenia was startled by the sudden appearance next to her cot and quickly closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

Scoffing, the phantom got closer. "You can't fool me, girl."

Gardenia did not want to face the ghost that was most likely right in front of her, but curiosity got the best of her, and she peaked a glance.

The figure was more solid than what she would expect of a ghost, but given the day of the year, that was to be expected. It was a woman, her long dark hair reaching her waist, and her clothes looking very antiquated, medieval, even by Wizarding standards. The color of her dress was not easy to tell, but it was light, except for a very dark patch in her abdomen, where a dark stain was.

"Do not fret, I only wish to speak with you."

Gardenia decided the best course of action was to simply give in and talk to the damn ghost. She seemed determined to have a conversation, and better now when they were alone than in a corridor filled with people.

She opened her eyes, and sat up straight in the bed, using her pillow as a backrest. "Why the interest in speaking to a measly first year?"

The ghost raised an eyebrow, clearly displeased. "Do not pretend ignorance, dear. You are well aware as to the reason."

Sighing, Gardenia had a feeling this one would not surrender to any attempts of misdirection. "How do you know?"

"The dead can sense death, even if it was not permanent."

"Should I be worried about half the school finding out by morning?" Gardenia inquired, that being her biggest fear at the moment.

The ghost look offended by such an insinuation. "Why of course not! One should never reveal other's secrets, most notably when it concerns such a thing as past lives! It would be the height of dishonor."

"Pardon me for not being well versed in the etiquette of the dead."

Noting the sarcasm laced words, the ghost glared at her.

"Reincarnation is a rare occurrence, but it is a topic considered sacrosanct among any who have lost their lives." Her voice was soft, even slightly morose, and she had a sad smile on her lips. "Tell me, child, what is your name?"

"Gardenia Fawley." She was tempted to add a 'pleased to meet you', but had a feeling it wouldn't come out very genuine.

"I am Lady Judith, it is a pleasure to meet you." She sat on the end of Gardenia's bed, technically still hovering over it, but mimicking the act.

Gardenia couldn't look away from her, she was very beautiful, but her features were defeated, tired even. She had clearly been a lady, it wasn't just a title, she was sitting poised as one would expect a queen to do, and her gaze made Gardenia want to curl up on herself.

"Is reincarnation common, if there are rules concerning it among ghosts?" Gardenia decided to ask, her curiosity winning.

"Not particularly, you're only the fifth student in all the time I've been here that is an old soul."

"And how long have you been here?"

Lady Judith regarded her with a pointed gaze, a silent reprimand for her rudeness. "Around eight centuries."

That made sense, given the medieval garments. Five people, including her, in eight hundred years? That wasn't a lot, but knowing it wasn't something exclusive to her made her feel better. Gardenia doubted any of them had knowledge of future events because they read a book, but who knows. Maybe someone was reincarnated as a witch in the sixteenth century with knowledge of things that wouldn't happen in her lifetime, that ought to be annoying.

"Do you know if they remembered anything from before?"

"I was not well acquainted with any of them, the most recent is quite hard to talk to," Lady Judith sounded annoyed, "He threatened to exorcise all of us if we tried to talk to him again! The gall of that boy, it's quite rude to mention that practice around ghosts you know."

Wait a minute, did she refer to him in the present tense? He _is_ hard to talk to? Gardenia's eyes widened, and she leaned forward in excitement.

"He's still alive? That last one?"

Lady Judith froze, noticing her slip up. "I cannot divulge such things."

"Oh please, couldn't you bend the rules just this once? I'm also a reincarnated soul, so it wouldn't be exactly a breach to tell me."

"I'm afraid it would, considering this person has never given permission for his information to be divulged," Lady Judith countered.

Gardenia huffed, the death code seemed nice at first, but now she wished it wasn't a thing.

"Can't you at least give me a clue? In what year did he graduate?"

Lady Judith seemed composed, as one would expect of an eight hundred year ghost who used to be nobility, but Gardenia could sense she was a little put off by her slip. "I cannot."

She narrowed her eyes at the phantom, trying to decide how to proceed. Gardenia couldn't very well just move on after finding out she could actually meet someone that was sort of in the same situation as her. Books on the topic were something she had only ever perused in the book shop, too afraid to buy one and have her mother question the reason.

Gardenia had looked at a few about past lives in the library at Hogwarts, but all there was were mentions of people in the past that had proclaimed to have lived before, many seemingly a farse, and there was virtually nothing about why it happened, or how.

"Can't because it's against the rules?" Gardenia questioned, paying attention to Lady Judith's reaction.

The ghost hesitated, very slightly, but hesitated all the same. "Yes, it's not for me to tell."

"Or maybe you can't tell me that because he hasn't graduated yet?"

Jackpot.

The exasperation on Lady Judith's eyes was clear, Gardenia could tell she'd annoyed her, but tried her luck one more time. "What House?"

Lady Judith didn't respond, simply looked away, and Gardenia decided to relent.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to antagonize you," Gardenia said, after a brief moment of silence. Judith was staring at one of the windows, facing away from Gardenia. "It's just, even the idea of finding someone in the same situation as me—" she shrugged, not sure of how to phrase her feelings. "—I'd like that."

She grimaced at her poor excuse of an explanation, she wasn't as articulate as she would like to be. When talking to eleven-year-olds, it seemed easier, but Gardenia felt somewhat uneasy in the presence of the ghost, someone who had been around for so long, and on top of it, knew exactly what Gardenia was.

Lady Judith sighed, or at least, acted the motion of sighing, and turned back to her. "I understand that feeling," she said, features softening. "When I first died, I was alone, a sole ghost in my village. It wasn't until decades later that I made my way to Hogwarts, where I finally understood what had happened to me, and came to terms with it."

"You didn't know you were a ghost?"

She shook her head. "I knew I was dead, but no one could see me, no matter how much I tried," Gardenia tried imagining how that must've felt like, and couldn't help the frown that marred her face at the thought. "It wasn't until I met a young witch who could see me, and followed her to Hogwarts, that I finally understood."

"You were a muggleborn?"

"Yes, not that I knew that, of course. I was taught to hide my abilities from the first moment they appeared, and never developed much as a witch." Seeing the look on Gardenia's face, Lady Judith raised an eyebrow. "Do not feel sorry for me, girl. I had a joyful life, even if it did not involve magic."

"It's not that," Gardenia corrected. "I know you don't need magic to be happy. I'm thinking about how you were alone for so long, not knowing what had happened to you. I can relate, in a way."

Lady Judith stared at her, her brows slightly furrowed, almost as if she was putting a puzzle together.

"You are more pleasant then I was expecting," she ended up saying after a few moments.

Gardenia raised an eyebrow. "Was that a compliment?"

"I suppose it can be taken that way."

"You know, if you have to question if a compliment is one or not, that means it's not a very good one," Gardenia said.

A soft laugh left the ghost, her eyes crinkling, and for the first time, Gardenia was struck by how young Lady Judith truly had been. At first, she thought maybe she'd been in her late twenties, her face tired and morose, but when she laughed, she barely looked out of her teenage years. A pang of sorrow cursed through Gardenia, and she wondered what had happened that not only killed her, but also made her look so melancholy.

"That is true, I shall endeavor to improve in those."

"You're not too bad yourself, Lady Judith."

"It seems I'm not alone in giving poor compliments," she said, a small smile still present. "You may call me Judith, child."

"And you may call me by my actual name."

"Perhaps," Judith replied, not looking very eager to comply with the request.

In the distance, footsteps could be heard, and Gardenia knew that the feast had probably ended.

Coming to the same conclusion as her, Judith stood up, making a motion to brush down her skirt, a mannerism she didn't need anymore, but was most likely ingrained in her. "I shall take my leave, lest someone question my reason for being here."

"It was nice meeting you," Gardenia said, finding she actually did mean her words.

"Likewise, dear. I am always around, should you ever need me," Judith mentioned. "And you have my word no one shall discover your secret."

Gardenia nodded and thanked her. Judith smiled once more before disappearing through one of the walls, just in time for the Hospital Wing's doors to open.

Laying back down, Gardenia contemplated her encounter with the ghost, glad to have her worries sated, and rather happy she wouldn't have to miss the Halloween feast in the future. She was rather looking forward to dancing skeletons, although the prospect of a troll wasn't very appealing. Maybe she'd fake being sick again in two years.

"Lie down here, Miss Warrington," Madam Pomfrey said, her voice reaching through the curtain between Gardenia's cot and the rest of the room.

Sitting up and opening the curtain partially, Gardenia was greeted to the sight of her Slytherin friend, or at least what she assumed was Celeste, considering instead of her head, there was a pumpkin. A boy she knew to be her twin, Cassius, was assisting his sister into lying down, his face impassive save for his clenched jaw.

"What happened?"

Her question brought his attention toward her, and he gave her an unimpressed look. "She was jinxed."

Gardenia rolled her eyes, not fond of the condescending tone his voice carried. "Yes, I can see that. I mean, how did it happen?"

"Someone cast it on her, you know, waving their wand and saying the spell," Warrington replied, and Celeste hit him in the arm, a silent reproach.

"Stop being difficult and tell me," Gardenia requested, now annoyed.

"I don't see how it's any of your business."

"Celeste is my friend, and I'd like to know why she was jinxed."

Celeste pinched her brother in the arm, obviously displeased by his attitude, and he winced.

Looking reluctant, a final slap on his hand made him explain. "Some girls jinxed her while she was making her way to the common room, I don't know why or who."

"Was it so hard?" Gardenia asked, making Warrington glare at her.

Madam Pomfrey returned with a few rags and a knife, and Warrington looked at her questionably. "Is there not a spell to remove the pumpkin?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Warrington. The only way to remove it safely is to carve it until she can take her head out of it," the matron explained. "The Melofors jinx encases the victim's head with a pumpkin, so to get rid of it you have to remove it either by hand or a vanishing spell, and I'd rather not have any of Miss Warrington's face vanished along with it."

Gardenia grimaced at the thought, noticing Warrington doing the same. "Can I help in any way?"

"You can help me carve the pumpkin if you'd like, but you better be agile with your hands unless you want to risk cutting your sister."

Warrington stepped back at that, not confidant enough in his abilities. Gardenia, on the other hand, decided to offer her assistance.

"I can help, I'm pretty nifty with a knife," she said, getting up and walking to her friend.

Madam Pomfrey, noticing her for the first time since coming back, looked at her. "Are you feeling better, Miss Fawley?"

"Oh yes, I slept a bit after eating and I'm much better now."

Warrington, who wasn't looking very happy about not being of any use other than moral support, looked skeptical at her offer. "I'm not sure I trust you to not maim my sister, Fawley."

Celeste tried swatting his arm again but missed the mark since he was now standing further away from her.

"I can assure you I'll do no such thing. Do you want Celeste to spend any more time than she already has with a pumpkin on her head?" At his silence, Gardenia nodded. "Then let me help."

He sighed, crossing his arms. "I'll be paying close attention to you."

"Be my guest."

While Madam Pomfrey worked on Celeste's front, Gardenia sat behind her friend and began cutting away parts of the pumpkin, carefully holding her dark hair out of the way. She could feel Warrington's eyes glaring into the side of her head, attentively looking out for any mistakes she might make.

Ignoring him, Gardenia concentrated on the task at hand, and soon she and Madam Pomfrey managed to get Celeste's head out of the pumpkin.

Her skin was sticky with the insides of the fruit, the hair close to the scalp looking like it had been coated with a gel. Madam Pomfrey handed Celeste some cloth to clean her face.

"Would you like to tell me exactly what happened, Miss Warrington?"

Celeste didn't look like she wanted to, but after a particular look from her brother, she complied.

"Some older Slytherin girls cornered me after the feast, one of them decided I didn't look festive enough and said she knew exactly how to fix that," Celeste admitted, looking at her hands which were folded in her lap, avoiding everyone's gaze.

"Have they bothered you before?" Warrington asked, his voice hard, and he looked ready to duel someone after she nodded. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I can handle it by myself!" Celeste exclaimed, finally dragging her gaze upwards to look at him. "If I go asking my brother's help for every single thing, no one's going to respect me."

Warrington didn't look happy about it but didn't say anything more.

"You should've reported it to your head of House as soon as it began, Miss Warrington," Madam Pomfrey reprimanded, but her eyes held a warm gleam. "But I understand that can often make things worse, and you were reluctant to do so."

Celeste looked at the matron, surprised she wasn't being scolded.

"I won't report this incident to Professor Snape, but I expect you do so yourself if anything happens again, and should you return to the Hospital Wing under similar circumstances, I'll be having words with your head of House."

At Celeste's nod of understanding, Madam Pomfrey smiled. "Good. Now, you can stay here for the night if you'd like, you can wash up in the loo in my office on that side of the wing. Mr. Warrington, you may stay for a maximum of twenty minutes, after that I expect you to return to your common room." She then looked at Gardenia, who had stayed sitting behind Celeste. "And you, Miss Fawley, return to your own bed and rest."

Gardenia readily complied, and Madam Pomfrey left to procure clothes for Celeste after she decided to stay for the night.

"Do you want help cleaning up?" Gardenia inquired.

Celeste smiled at her but shook her head. "I'll be fine, thank you."

As she made her way toward the adjacent room, Gardenia was left in the uncomfortable company of the less agreeable Warrington, much to her growing displeasure.

After what seemed like a few minutes of silence, he decided to break it. "How are you friends with my sister?"

Gardenia spared a glance at him, not really understanding the question. "By liking her, and her liking me? I'm sorry, do you not understand the concept of friendship?"

He looked at her with what could only be described as annoyance. "I do understand it, thank you. What I don't understand is how Celeste became friends with a blood-traitor Hufflepuff."

Gardenia groaned. "Oh please, don't tell me you're one of _those_ Slytherins."

"What do you mean by that?" Warrington questioned defensively.

"You know, the prejudiced elitist ones, who despise every other House and anyone who is not pureblood," she explained and shrugged. "Basically, the image a lot of people have of you lot being evil slimy gits."

Warrington scoffed. "I am not like that."

"Really? Could've fooled me." Gardenia sighed. "If you're not, why are you so shocked we're friends?"

Warrington didn't answer at first, and Gardenia almost thought he wasn't going to.

"While I am not like that, the people whose good graces we have to stay in are," he revealed, pointedly not looking at her. "Celeste making friends with someone such as yourself—" Warrington shrugged. "—it's not advisable, and she knows it."

Gardenia had a feeling he wasn't talking about their Slytherin peers, who, even if some were the stereotypical bigot that would shun anyone deemed unworthy(she had to admit stereotypes sometimes proved true, as much as she despised them), probably didn't hold that much leeway with these twins.

She contemplated how to respond, not having a clear picture of the situation, the information he'd told her wasn't enough to piece everything together, so Gardenia could only guess. "Maybe she thinks she doesn't have anything to fear here at Hogwarts, where the only one who can tattle is also the person she trusts more than anyone."

Warrington looked at her then, and she had no clue what was going through his mind, his face a completely blank slate. She didn't like that, not having any indication of how someone was feeling.

"Maybe that's why," he agreed, staying quiet for a brief moment before shaking his head and giving her a scathing look. "But anyhow, I don't see how it's worth it."

And just like that, any sympathy Gardenia had felt vanish as quickly as it had appeared. "Yes, I can see you not understanding the purpose of friendship, even if you think you know what it is."

Warrington was now glaring at her, and she could tell he was about to say something, but Celeste returned, face clean and hair wet, having also changed into the clothes Gardenia assumed Madam Pomfrey had gotten for her, and whatever he was about to say died in his lips.

Gardenia looked away from the irritating Slytherin and smiled at the pleasant one. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better," Celeste answered, and sat down in her cot. "You can go now, Cas, I'm alright."

"You still haven't told me the names of the girls that jinxed you," Warrington reminded her.

"And I'm not going to." At his raised eyebrow, she sighed. "I don't want you to protect me from every single thing, I need to be independent."

"This wasn't just a spat Celeste, someone jinxed you. This time it was a pumpkin in your head, what if the next time it's something much worse?"

Gardenia had to admit he had a fair point, not that she would ever admit it in his presence.

"Even so, I don't want your meddling. I know exactly what you'll do if you know their names, and it most certainly won't help me."

He looked like he wanted to argue with her, but Madam Pomfrey's time limit had been reached, and the matron was sitting at her desk and looking from him to the clock in the wall, a clear unspoken message. "We'll talk about this later."

As Warrington left, Gardenia couldn't help but notice how much nicer the Hospital Wing's atmosphere became, and she had to wonder how such different people shared a womb for nine months.

"Sorry about Cassius, he can be a bit much," Celeste said, turning so she was lying down facing Gardenia.

"It's alright." Gardenia turned on her cot as well, so it was easier to talk. She wondered how long Madam Pomfrey would let them chat before forcibly drawing the curtains and ordering them to sleep, so she decided to make the most of it while she could. "He was right though, about the girls."

"I know, but Cassius would most likely intimidate them with vague threats, and try to ostracize them, which would probably work to make them stop, but also make people think I can't defend myself and need my brother to do it for me." Gardenia probably looked astounded, because Celeste laughed at her expression. "Slytherin is a bit different from Hufflepuff."

"You can say that again," Gardenia murmured, and Celeste laughed once more. "How do you plan on dealing with them, then?"

Celeste averted her gaze, her brows furrowed. "I'm not sure."

Gardenia brainstormed a few ideas, from what she could tell, Slytherins were rather fond of proving their worth, so involving authority figures wouldn't do much good. She doubts Celeste can do what her brother can, otherwise she'd probably have done it already. She didn't have much experience with dealing with bullies, but she knew a great way of making people rethink messing with you.

She grinned at her friend. "I think I have the perfect solution."

Celeste looked at her curiously, and Gardenia told her in hushed tones, just in case Madam Pomfrey could hear them.

When Madam Pomfrey told tell to stop talking and get some rest, closing the curtain between their cots, the outline of a plan has been agreed upon, and both girls went to sleep with grins on their faces.

As Gardenia fell asleep, she made a mental note to talk to the other set of twins she knew, because they would need their help if they wanted to accomplish what she had in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took longer then I wanted it to, but my muse decided to take a vacation and leave me without the inspiration to write.
> 
> she came back though, and I'm rather happy with how this chapter turned out. It was supposed to have one more scene in it, but I decided it fit better with the next chapter, and this one would be a way too long with it.
> 
> also, this story has a new cover on ffn! I spent way too much time in photoshop for a cover that doesn't even fit in the size ffn provides, but it was mostly for fun, and why not use it right? it's better suited for someplace like Wattpad in terms of layout but I don't like posting there, so yeah
> 
> for anyone who wants to see the it, here's the link https://edits-blue.tumblr.com/post/624612493616201728  
> (bless ao3 for not making my life hard like ffn did with posting links)
> 
> thank you for reading, and until next time!


	11. Chapter 11

With November, besides the chilling cold, came the start of the Quidditch season.

The first game was Gryffindor vs Slytherin, which made Gardenia get ready to spend the first Saturday of the month in the stands, cheering for the red and gold house.

She'd been looking for her favorite set of twins before the match began, wanting to talk with them about the situation she'd requested their help with, and as Gardenia didn't want any prying ears, it was best to talk before the game when they wouldn't be busy with either celebrations or a pity party.

To her pleasure, they found her first.

"Ah, look who it is Forge, our little badger." One arm was draped around her shoulders, and a familiar redhead appeared on her right side.

"I see Gred, I heard she was planning a little prank that requires our help."

Smiling as Fred appeared on her other side. "I take it you two got my note?"

Fred smirked at her. "We did indeed. Let me tell you, we're very proud of you for finally surrounding to our superior ways, and of course, we'll help you prank a few of those slimy snakes."

"I'm curious, what did they do to spark your anger?" George inquired.

"They're harassing a friend of mine, and I want to make sure they know not to do that ever again."

"Classic case of snake preying on badger, but we'll get to see the much more satisfying badger on snake." Realizing they thought she meant the Slytherins were harassing another Hufflepuff, Gardenia shook her head.

"My friend is also in Slytherin, so it's a case of cannibalism, really."

Both the redheads stopped, Gardenia continued walking before realizing no one was walking with her and then turned around to look at them. They had confused and rather alarmed expressions.

"You're friends with a snake?" Fred sounded incredulous, and Gardenia rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I met her on the train, and no matter her sorting, I like her." There was a challenge in her eyes, daring either of them to have a problem with this friendship.

George was the first one to snap out of it, not looking very enthused, but smiling nonetheless. "Right, we'll have to avoid catching her in the prank as well then."

Fred looked a bit hesitant still, and Gardenia sighed. "Look, I get they have a bad reputation, but not everyone in that house is automatically evil. You just have to trust me on this if you don't agree, and if it ever happens you're proven right about whatever ridiculous misconception you have, I promise you can tell me ' _I told you so_ ' and I won't even get vexed."

That seemed to do it, and they were back on track. Gardenia would address this particular issue in the future if needed, but for now, she didn't worry too much. Eleven-year-olds probably got easily caught up in the house rivalry, and hopefully, the two would grow out of it before long.

"So, do you have any ideas?" She asked.

Fred and George looked at each other with identical mischievous smiles, before looking at her and speaking in unison. "Oh, _plenty_."

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Sitting in the stands surrounded by the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, Gardenia was dragged by Mackenzie to sit between her and Beauregard.

"I want you to pay attention to the Gryffindor Keeper during this match," he told her as she settled herself. It was rather nice to be between the two teenagers, Beauregard was sitting in a way that blocked the wind, and Ward, being on Mackenzie's other side, effectively created a vacuum that shielded the two girls.

The object of study in question was Oliver Wood, the Quidditch crazy Keeper that would eventually be captain. Gardenia didn't know a whole lot about him other than things concerning Quidditch, and if she remembered right, he'd been a little more concerned with a lost match than Harry falling off a broom.

"Is he any good?"

Beauregard nodded but didn't elaborate.

"What about the Slytherin Keeper?"

Mackenzie laughed. "Don't even bother with that one honey, his tactic consists of standing in front of a hoop and hoping his massive frame will block the shots."

"Doesn't that make it easy to score?"

"Yep, but only if the Chasers let anyone get close enough to try, " she explained. "All three of them are pretty good, a match with Slytherin is one of the only things that manage to get under Phil's skin, they're a challenging bunch."

The match began, and with it, the cheering coming from mostly the red and gold, and the silver and green stands.

Gardenia, as much as she was tempted to let her eyes follow the quaffle, kept her gaze on Wood, analyzing his movements. She found he was focusing on the Chasers, flying around the three hoops, not staying still.

"If you're already moving when the rival team approaches to take a shot, you have an easier time maneuvering to where you think they're aiming for," Beauregard said, and Gardenia was startled by his comment. She didn't think he was going to explain things to her, but it made it easier to study Wood if he told her what was important to look for.

It felt a little weird, zeroing in on only one player, but it was interesting. As a Keeper you had to watch the match as well as play in it and make a judgment of when to act and, watching that specific player, you got to see the moments where he'd become alert just to slide right back into relaxing, as well as how he'd attentively watch the plays between the Chasers. Gardenia was mesmerized, and suddenly she couldn't wait to finally be allowed to play a match.

Wood was a good player, and she wasn't exactly surprised by this, having heard from both Charlie and Beauregard, the latter not giving praise often. He was still just a third year, but Gardenia had little trouble seeing how he'd eventually make it into a professional team.

A downside to not looking at the rest of the players was that she missed Charlie catching the snitch, winning the game for Gryffindor.

"Weasley is unfairly good, seriously, both he and his brother that graduated are awesome players," Mackenzie grumbled. "Why couldn't I have been born in the gifted ginger family instead of the physically uncoordinated one?"

"Because then you'd bring down their reputation as good players," Ward piped in, receiving a smack on the back of the head.

"Percy is not very good at Quidditch," Gardenia commented.

"Ah, you're friends with the twins, right?" Gardenia nodded, making Ward laugh. "They're a rambunctious bunch."

"That's one way to put it."

"Do they play as well?"

"Both are Beaters."

Mackenzie groaned. "You can practically make a Quidditch team out of that family."

Considering what Gardenia knew about the two that had yet to attend Hogwarts, she wasn't off the mark with that one.

Leaving the stands, the excited cheer coming from the Gryffindors not far ahead, and the grumbling of the Slytherins behind them, Gardenia spotted the congregation of redheads just outside the pitch, one of them still in his sweaty Quidditch uniform.

"I'll meet up with you later," Gardenia told Heidi, who was hounding Chiara about something and barely acknowledged her beyond a nod.

Chiara smiled at her, a silent reassurance she'd tell Heidi where she'd gone when the girl eventually asked, this interaction a complete blank in her mind.

Avoiding being elbowed in the face was harder than she thought it would be, and she managed to reach her destination just after barely escaping an accidental blow on the nose.

"Congratulations on your win!" She said to Charlie, smiling up at him. "Hope you're prepared to be destroyed by us in your next match."

Charlie laughed, ruffling her hair. "Thanks, and that's not even a possibility."

"Don't underestimate us, Mackenzie's pretty determined to make you eat dust."

"Mack's been trying that for four years."

"Well, I have a feeling this year she'll succeed."

Fred and George were using her as a support for their elbows, one on each shoulder, and she swiped their arms away, grabbing them and crossing her own arms through them to prevent them from attempting that again.

"Want to join the celebration?" They asked in unison, which was deeply unsettling to Gardenia. And they knew it.

"Is it allowed?" She asked, looking at Percy and Charlie, the future prefect and the Quidditch captain.

Charlie nodded, smiling. "Yeah, there's no discussion of strategies, and other Houses are allowed. It's not a big celebration since it's still the first game of the season, but we'll take pretty much any opportunity to have fun."

She wasn't about to pass up a chance to see the Gryffindor common room, so as the four Weasleys headed back to the castle, Charlie being engulfed by his Quidditch team, Gardenia followed.

Instead of going down to the basement as she was used, they ascended the stairs, going up to the seventh floor. Gardenia had plenty of exercise due to practice and moving around the castle for classes, but she was rather glad that after a meal she needed only to go down a little bit before arriving at her common room, instead of having to go up so many steps.

They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, and without missing a beat, Fred and George put their hands on her ears, effectively keeping her from hearing Percy utter the password.

"It's not like I'm going to break in here," Gardenia commented.

Fred shrugged, crossing her arm through his again as they made their way inside. "It's the principle of it."

Having been used to the Hufflepuff common room, Gardenia was taken aback by how similar yet so different the Gryffindor one was. There was no centerpiece like the fireplace and portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, the hearth being in a cozy corner, and the lack of plants made her a bit uncomfortable. The colors were more dark and vivid, all in tones of red and gold, and the furniture was heavier, but it fit Gryffindor rather well. For all she had seen of this place from the eyes of Harry once upon a time, it felt foreign to Gardenia, and it didn't make her feel as her own common room did.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor common room, Gardenia."

"Thanks, Percy." She smiled at the Weasley, who gave the twins a warning not to cause ruckus before leaving to join his friends.

George scoffed as Percy left. "It's like he doesn't know us."

Fred nodded in agreement. "He should know by now wanting us to behave is a guarantee we won't."

Gardenia rolled her eyes at them but had a small smile on her lips. "Try not causing Percy to apoplexy, please. Your mother would be devastated."

"It's not our fault he's so uptight, we're not sure he wasn't switched at birth yet," Fred said, now leading Gardenia to a corner where she could see Lee Jordan, while George trailed behind.

"Charlie is older, and instead of tattling on us when we prank him, he just pranks us right back," complemented George.

"Oh, talking about that, did he get you back for the hair thing?"

Fred grimaced. "We might've woken up in the common in our underwear."

Gardenia couldn't help the laughter that bubbled out, and George poked her in her side.

"Nice to see you reveling in our embarrassment."

"It was well deserved and you know it," she responded, smiling back at him.

"Maybe, but as our best friend you should find it outrageous simply on principle," Fred said, grinning down at her.

"Are they whining about the underwear thing again?" Lee asked as they sat down, him already being sat in an armchair.

Gardenia nodded. "They're awfully dramatic, aren't they?"

"Hey!" They exclaimed in unison, and Gardenia hit them on the arm.

"Don't to the creepy twin thing."

Tilting their heads in perfect synchrony, they made confused faces at her. "What creepy twin thing?"

Groaning, Gardenia got up from the couch where the three of them had sat and made her way to sit on the arm of Lee's chair, while Fred and George chuckled.

"It is unsettling, isn't it?" Lee commented, and Gardenia nodded.

"Very."

"We're not doing anything wrong."

She got shivers down her arms and made a face at them. "I'm going to get some butterbeer." Gardenia started heading toward the table across the room, filled with food and drinks. "Lee, please exorcise them while I'm gone."

"On it."

The common room was filled with excited Gryffindors, along with some Hufflepuffs and a few Ravenclaws, and unsurprisingly, no Slytherins.

Reaching the table, Gardenia grabbed a butterbeer for her and one for Fred, and as she began to try and balance a pumpkin juice for George along with them, a hand reached and grabbed it, leaving her with just two cups.

"I can help," Sebastian told her, and she smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks." She nodded her head toward where the twins and Lee were. "Want to join us?"

Sebastian followed her gaze and raised his brows. "You're friends with the twins?"

"Yeah, I've known them pretty much all my life," she responded and an incredulous look formed on his face. "Why the question?"

"You don't seem as... loud?" Sebastian responded, hesitant on the last word. "I don't mean to be rude, it's just—"

"They're trouble in human form, trust me, I know." Gardenia chuckled and nudged him with her shoulder. "Someone has to keep them in check, otherwise they'd be blowing up toilets and setting drapes on fire," she elaborated, and Sebastian smiled halfheartedly. "So, wanna join us?"

He still looked a bit hesitant but nodded and followed her back.

"Are they normal again, Lee?"

Lee looked at her solemnly. "I'm afraid it's a lost cause, we should find another pair of redheads, this time not twins just in case."

"Is that for us?" Fred and George asked, adding unison movements to it, each of them pointing at one of the cups she was holding.

"It is, when you become separate entities."

They looked at each other, had what looked like a silent conversation, and nodded. Fred then smiled at her and extended a hand. "Butterbeer, please?"

Gardenia handed him his cup, and when George did the same, she pointed to Sebastian. "He has your juice. I only have two hands, after all."

Sebastian, having been staying a bit further behind her, gave George his cup, and then looked painfully always standing there.

Gardenia, who reclaimed her spot on the arm of Lee's chair, gestured to the free place on the sofa where the twins were. "You can sit, Sebastian."

He looked startled at her words but quickly sat down. Gardenia narrowed her eyes at Fred and George, and then at Lee.

"Did any of you prank him?"

By the look on their faces, the answer was yes. Gardenia was about to scold them when Sebastian waved his hands, nervously shaking his head.

"It wasn't anything bad," he said, but Gardenia wasn't fooled.

"We did it to everyone on the first day, the first years, that is," Fred said.

At her raised brow, George elaborated. "Just a nice welcome, some exploding snaps triggered to go off when they opened their trunks."

That actually didn't sound too bad, considering Fred and George. But of course, that wasn't all.

"And Grayson here might've gotten a bit too startled," Fred continued, and Sebastian blushed.

"I fainted," he murmured, his gaze not leaving his cup.

Gardenia's heart went out to him, and she glared at the twins. Sebastian was already a bit self-conscious about not fitting in, and that must've made him horribly embarrassed. No wonder he hadn't bonded with his dorm mates.

At her silent reprimand, George looked abashed. "About that, I've been meaning to apologize, we didn't mean to startle you so much. It was just supposed to be a bit of scare."

"We did something similar to Charlie when he first got home from Hogwarts, he not only fainted but also screamed like a banshee beforehand," Fred mentioned, something that while did happen, was probably also his way of apologizing.

"The burly Quidditch captain?" Sebastian asked, raising his head to look at Fred with wide eyes.

"Yep, at the time he was more of a scrawny fella, but he fell like a ton of bricks, we could hear it all the way down from the living room."

And with that reassurance, Gardenia saw Sebastian flourish as he had when talking with her in Astronomy class. The kid needed a bit of prodding to feel comfortable, but nothing could hold him back after he was.

As he started to question Fred about the prank and the mechanisms behind it, fascinated with how they made the magical trigger and that it wasn't a mechanical one based on the opening of the trunk, all the while suggesting muggle things to help them improve the prank, Gardenia began to regret building a bridge between Sebastian and the twins.

"What have I done?" She murmured, despair creeping in her voice.

"You've given the twins a valuable resource," Lee answered, as he patted her on the shoulder.

"We're doomed."

Lee nodded. "Yep."

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

The tutoring sessions with her _dear_ cousin hadn't been all that bad, considering Sawyer's attitude toward her.

That said, she hadn't exactly been improving either, and he was starting to get frustrated.

"You need to stop thinking about this like a muggle," Sawyer said, closing the transfiguration book. "Don't think about the actual changing from wood to metal, think about the final product. If you get too caught up on the mechanics, you end up not managing to do anything."

"How do you know I'm doing that?"

He sighed. "It's a guess, but I'd say a pretty good one."

Of course, it was. Gardenia held herself back from rolling her eyes.

"Close your eyes," he said, glaring at her when she didn't immediately comply. "Imagine a needle in your head, think about its size, material, weight. Think about it's sharp point and how it feels when you gently press the tip of your finger to it, or how small it is in you hands as you hold it to embroider," Sawyer continued, and she started doing as he said, creating a mental image. "Detail it as much as you can, do you have it pictured?" She nodded. "Good, now open your eyes, and do the spell with it still on your mind."

She did so, and as the match turned into a perfectly pointy and shiny needle, Gardenia grinned.

"I did it!" She was practically jumping in excitement while sitting.

Sawyer raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you finally, after two months since the task was first given, managed to produced a decent attempt."

Her smiled wilted, and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why didn't you explain it to me like that before?"

He shrugged. "I didn't think you needed such a basic explanation, but it seems I overestimated your capabilities."

Gardenia gaped, aware she was probably looking like a fish, but how dare he? 

"Now the Switching Spell," Sawyer continued, ignoring her astonishment. "You should still practice that one in your own time because one success doesn't mean mastery, but there's no need for me to supervise."

She buried her annoyance, taking a deep breath. There was no use blowing a fuse on him, she needed to get to the root of the problem, which didn't start with the both of them at all. Of course, Sawyer was a prickly person in it of itself, and their added family issues exacerbated his sour personality. Gardenia was starting to second guess whether it'd be worth it at all to try, but she didn't want to give up before doing so.

So, trying her best to be the bigger person(she might never be that physically but nothing was stopping her in the moral ground), Gardenia opened the chapter on her Transfiguration book about the Switching Spell and did her best to learn it.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

Helga Hufflepuff was an angel, or at least, the closest a human could've been.

Sitting in the common room of her House, you had the presence of her portrait, and with that, the possibility for conversations with the founder, and that was particularly fascinating to the first years.

Apparently with time people got used to her presence and stopped being awed at every word the portrait spoke, but Gardenia didn't think she'd ever stop being amazed by the witch. To her knowledge, she was the only of the four founders to have a portrait, not to mention one that was put in a place she'd have constant interaction with the members of her House, and if that didn't speak to her morals, Gardenia didn't know what did.

She wasn't always around, and not always available for a chat, and when she was, students clamored for a chance to have a word with her.

Today, a lazy Sunday which found most people outside enjoying the rare appearance of a sunny day, there were barely any people in the common room, and Gardenia was the only one sitting on the corner in front of the fireplace, which house the portrait on top of it.

She was reading a Potions book, wanting a break from Transfiguration, and she was distracted by the movement above, where Helga Hufflepuff returned to her portrait.

"Oh, hello dear," the witch greeted. "Enjoying your Sunday?"

Gardenia was a bit awestruck, this might not be the real deal, but it was an imprint of Helga's whole personality and knowledge, still around a thousand years later.

"Yeah," she responded, suddenly feeling a bit shy. Gardenia had never managed to be here when other people talked with her, but Heidi had once come to the dorm room, sullen Caroline trailing behind, raving about how cool their House founder was, while Caroline grumbled about not managing to ask many things because of Heidi's incessant talking.

"And how are you settling in here at Hogwarts?" Helga's kind smile and coaxing tone made her feel more relaxed.

"Alright, I think," Gardenia answered. "It was a bit hard to find my way around during the first few weeks, but I've gotten the hang of it now." And a certain map helps.

"It is a big castle," she remarked, a glint in her eyes. "But there is much to be housed here, so the space is necessary."

Gardenia, although still feeling a bit nervous, decided to ask some questions to sate her curiosity. "Did you plan for Hogwarts to be as big as it is now in terms of teaching?"

The founder shook her head. "We started with just a few dozen, all varying ages. But we did hope for more students in the future, and with time, we got them."

By this point, her book was forgotten on her lap, and Gardenia's attention was solely on the portrait. "And did you plan the Houses from the beginning?"

"Yes, at first as a way of dividing the students so each of us would teach one group, but as the numbers rose, and we gathered more wizards to be professors, the Houses turned into what they are today." Helga held a fond expression, remembering the events from long ago. "After about a decade we had built the separate common rooms, and each of us gave our touches to the school."

Curious, Gardenia questioned the founder more. "What do you mean by that?"

"Godric used his hat so it'd sort the students, placing on it a spell to give it a form of sentience," Helga explained. "He also enchanted his sword to be pulled out of it for a student of his House that showed true bravery in a time of need."

Realizing that Helga had been talking about legacies left by each founder, she became even more alert. One of those was bound to cause trouble in the near future, and she was eager to know anything there was to know about it. Not to mention, Gardenia had no idea what Rowena or Helga could've left behind at Hogwarts.

"And you and the others?"

"Salazar created a chamber where he hid treasures and secrets and left behind what he said to be a guardian." Helga sighed, a tired look on her face. "He made sure only an heir of his could ever open it, and did not divulge to me or the others where it was."

So, Helga knew little more than the rest of the wizard population, and less than what Gardenia knew.

"Rowena created a library that would only open to those that demonstrated an unending thirst of knowledge, and inside she placed many of her private journals along with precious copies of her own collection," Helga continued, and the information made Gardenia's eyes widen. She had no idea about that.

"Where is it?"

"It moves around, but I know there is a permanent door hidden in the Ravenclaw common room."

That was unexpected, but somehow, not surprising. "Is it only for Ravenclaws?"

Helga shook her head. "Anyone that shows promise, although, from what I've seen it is primarily Ravenclaws. There is a test to pass to gain access, and Hogwarts chooses the candidates."

That sounded like a Ravenclaw thing. "And you?"

The founder smiled, and the corners of her eyes crinkled. "I created a room that would provide assistance to anyone that needed it, and would appear to anyone, regardless of house, heritage, knowledge, or bravery."

Gardenia furrowed her brows and tilted her head. That sounded familiar. Could it be...?

"How do you access it?"

"If you walk by the right wall three times, what you need in mind, a door will appear."

The Room of Requirement. Helga Hufflepuff had been behind that? Gardenia was astounded. It was not only an incredible feat of magic, but also something that would aid students in the future, and had probably already done so as well.

"That was you?" The words slipped before she could hold them.

"Oh? You've been in it?"

Gardenia froze a bit, unsure if she should lie or not. She could say someone told her about it, but she wasn't sure she could sell it. "Uh, yes."

"I'm glad it's been useful, then," Helga said, a brightness in her eyes.

She didn't pry, and for that, Gardenia was thankful.

In truth, it made sense that it was Helga that created it, giving the nature of what the Room of Requirement did. Each of the founders left something behind that spoke to their values and who they were, and given Hufflepuff and Helga herself, Gardenia though it fit.

Maybe it was time to make her words true and pay a visit to the legacy of her House's founder.

— ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — ✧ — 

**this one is a bit shorter then the last few, I actually wanted to ask you all if you prefer the bigger 6-7k chapters, or something like this around 4k**  
**please let me know in the comments**

**this story now has a wattpad version as well! mostly because of the aesthetics and the fact I made a cover, since I don't really like the platform**  
**if anyone wants to have a look at the face claims I chose for some of the characters, or just prefers to read in wattpad, the story is published under my other username bluewoceans**

**thank you for reading and until next time!**


End file.
